Research

Hormonal

Aerobic exercise training (AEX) improves insulin-mediated glucose disposal (tissue sensitivity) in obese sedentary older men, but does not improve oral glucose tolerance (OGTT) unless combined with weight loss.

For older obese men, doing 40 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous aerobic exercise three times a week significantly improves how your body uses insulin, even if your weight doesn't change. However, to improve your body's response to a sugar load (oral glucose tolerance), you likely need to combine this exercise with actual weight loss.

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AEX alone increased insulin-mediated glucose disposal and reduced plasma insulin responses to an oral glucose challenge without improving glucose disposal by the hyperinsulinemic euglycemic clamp. The combined intervention of AEX and weight reduction improved both glucose responses to an oral glucose challenge and insulin-mediated glucose disposal.
Donald R. Dengel et al. · Journal of Applied Physiology · 1996

Why this rating

Randomized controlled trial with multiple intervention arms and rigorous metabolic clamping, though limited to a specific demographic (older obese men).

Source

Distinct effects of aerobic exercise training and weight loss on glucose homeostasis in obese sedentary men

Donald R. Dengel et al. · Journal of Applied Physiology · 1996

DOI 10.1152/jappl.1996.81.1.318

rct · n=47Cited 188×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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