Research
Energy balance
Aerobic exercise training in the absence of weight loss does not significantly improve fasting glucose, fasting insulin, or lipoprotein concentrations (HDL-C, LDL-C) compared to a control group, although it does increase VO2max.
If you start exercising but do not lose weight, your cardiovascular fitness will likely improve, but your blood sugar, insulin, and cholesterol levels may not change significantly. To fix metabolic health markers, you must also lose weight through diet.
GoodRefutesHIGH confidence
By contrast, aerobic exercise did not improve fasting glucose or insulin concentrations or glucose responses during the OGTT... Although there was a modest 5% increase in HDL-C levels (within-group paired t test; P<.05) with training, this did not differ from the control group.
Why this rating
RCT design, clear negative findings for specific metrics.
Source
Effects of Weight Loss vs Aerobic Exercise Training on Risk Factors for Coronary Disease in Healthy, Obese, Middle-aged and Older Men
Leslie I. Katzel · JAMA · 1995
DOI 10.1001/jama.1995.03530240025035
rct · n=170Cited 295×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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