Research

Mixed

Aerobic exercise (AE) reduces intrahepatic lipid and visceral adipose tissue and improves insulin sensitivity in obese adolescent girls, whereas resistance exercise (RE) does not produce these specific metabolic benefits despite reducing intermuscular adipose tissue.

For obese adolescent girls aiming to improve metabolic health (specifically liver fat and insulin sensitivity) without losing weight, 3 hours of moderate-to-vigorous aerobic exercise per week (e.g., treadmill/elliptical) is effective. Resistance training alone, while beneficial for muscle strength and intermuscular fat, does not significantly reduce liver or visceral fat in this group.

GoodQualifiesHIGH confidence
In obese adolescent girls, AE but not RE is effective in reducing liver fat and visceral adiposity and improving insulin sensitivity independent of weight loss or calorie restriction.
SoJung Lee et al. · American Journal of Physiology-Endocrinology and Metabolism · 2013

Why this rating

Randomized controlled trial with rigorous measurement (MRI, MRS, hyperinsulinemic euglycemic clamp), though sample size is modest (n=44) and limited to a specific demographic.

Source

Aerobic exercise but not resistance exercise reduces intrahepatic lipid content and visceral fat and improves insulin sensitivity in obese adolescent girls: a randomized controlled trial

SoJung Lee et al. · American Journal of Physiology-Endocrinology and Metabolism · 2013

DOI 10.1152/ajpendo.00285.2013

rct · n=44Cited 171×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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