Research
Energy balance
Exercise training, particularly aerobic and HIIT, leads to significant loss of visceral adipose tissue, which may provide cardiometabolic health benefits.
Exercise helps reduce dangerous visceral fat, which improves heart health. Both aerobic and high-intensity exercises are effective for this.
GoodSupportsMEDIUM confidence
Exercise led to... visceral fat loss (3 SR-MAs, SMDs ranging from −0.33 to −0.56)... Visceral fat loss may lead to benefits for cardiometabolic health.
Why this rating
Based on 3 systematic reviews, providing moderate to high-level evidence.
Source
Effect of exercise training on weight loss, body composition changes, and weight maintenance in adults with overweight or obesity: An overview of 12 systematic reviews and 149 studies
Alice Bellicha et al. · Obesity Reviews · 2021
DOI 10.1111/obr.13256
Meta-analysis · 149 studiesCited 346×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- Exercise training produces significant weight loss (1.5–3.5 kg) and fat loss (1.3–2.6 kg) in adults with overweight or obesity, with no significant difference between aerobic and high-intensity interval training (HIIT) when energy expenditure is equalized.Good
- Resistance training reduces the loss of lean body mass during diet-induced weight loss, particularly in older adults with obesity.Moderate
- Exercise training has no significant effect on weight maintenance (prevention of weight regain) after an initial weight loss phase.Limited
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