These are the benefits of HIIT for reducing obesity
Maintaining a varied and balanced diet, as well as abandoning a sedentary life, are two of the important recommendations for achieving healthy lifestyle habits and avoid the risk of suffering from health problems such as obesity.
Obesity is a global health problem that has nearly tripled worldwide since 1975. This is a factor that significantly increases the risk of suffering from other diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, musculoskeletal disorders and some cancersaccording to the World Health Organization (WHO).
A new effective strategy against overweight
That is why researchers are focusing on this problem to try to find effective solutions. This is the case of the new randomized and controlled trial conducted in women, which confirmed that the combination of time-restricted eating (ART) with high-intensity interval training (HIIT) it is more effective than either alone in improving cardiometabolic health in people who are overweight and at risk of serious disease.
The results, published in the journal Cell Metabolism, show that this combination improved means long-term glycemic control compared to a no-intervention control group and produced a 2-fold reduction in fat mass and visceral fat area compared to each intervention alone.
“Isolation ART and HIIT are getting more and more attention for what they are effective and feasible strategies for at-risk populations”recalls lead author Trine Moholdt, head of the Exercise, Cardiometabolic Health and Reproduction Research Group at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU).
“We wanted to compare the effects of the combination of ART and HIIT with their isolated effects and to determine whether both would act synergistically to improve health in individuals at risk of cardiometabolic disease. This finding highlights the importance of changing dietary and physical activity habits for people who want to rapidly improve their health and reduce their risk of disease.”
How the test was done
The process had four parts: HIT alone, ART alone, the ART-HIIT combination and a control group. 131 women were enrolled, 32 or 33 in each arm. All of them were overweight or obese and had risk factors for cardiometabolic diseases such as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
ART is defined as the consumption of all daily calories within a 10-hour time window. HIIT is defined as exercise performed at 90% of maximum heart rate for 35 minutes, three times per week. The exercises were monitored by the researchers and the participants were asked to record their first and last calories each day.
The interventions lasted 7 weeks. Several measurements were taken before and after the study, such as participants’ blood pressurebody mass index, blood fat and cholesterol levels, and various measurements of blood sugar and insulin levels.
Results of the investigation
The researchers found that participants who combined ART and HIIT were able to improve their average long-term glycemic control, measured as HbA1c. They were too able to effectively reduce body fat and visceral fat and increase your cardiorespiratory fitness, measured as maximal oxygen uptake.
However, there were no statistically significant differences in blood lipids, appetite hormones, or vital signs after either intervention compared to the control group.
Another important finding of the study is that adherence to the study was high. “Adherence rates matter Notes for first author Camilla La Haganes, PhD student at NTNU. Adherence to general lifestyle recommendations is low, and our diet and exercise strategies may serve as an alternative.”
“We recommend this type of program to people who want a relatively simple way change your diet and exercise habits and improve your health. ART is a less tedious and time-consuming method of weight loss than counting daily calories, and HIIT is tolerable and safe for previously sedentary people and can be completed in 30-40 minutes,” says he.
The researchers invited participants to return for follow-up tests two years after completing the study to find out if they continued with the interventions. They also plan to determine whether the combination of TRE and HIT will produce the same health benefits and will have equally good levels of adherence in a completely domestic environment.
This study will include both men and women. “Together, these two new studies will tell us more about the long-term feasibility and also the feasibility of implementation in a real-world environment.” In addition, pwe will be able to investigate whether there are gender differences in response to these interventions,” Haganes explains.
