Research

Hormonal

Exercise training reduces serum leptin levels in older women, but this reduction is driven by the loss of fat mass rather than an independent effect of exercise or hormone replacement therapy.

If you are an older woman exercising to lose fat, expect your leptin levels to drop. This is a normal and expected result of losing fat mass, not a negative side effect of the exercise itself. Hormone replacement therapy does not appear to alter this outcome.

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The reduction in leptin seemed to be due to of the decrease in body fat that occurred as a result of the exercise training, rather than to the exercise, per se, as the associations between adiposity and leptin level were similar before and after training (Fig. 2).
Wendy M. Kohrt et al. · The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism · 1996

Why this rating

Randomized controlled trial with clear intervention and control groups, though sample size is moderate (n=61).

Source

Serum leptin levels are reduced in response to exercise training, but not hormone replacement therapy, in older women.

Wendy M. Kohrt et al. · The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism · 1996

DOI 10.1210/jcem.81.11.8923847

rct · n=61Cited 178×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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