Introduction: Overweight and obesity can be responsible for many diseases, including diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and fat metabolism disorders. Abnormality in the function of fat cells in overweight individuals has a key role in the development of inflammation and secretion of Nesfatin and Tumor Necrosis Factor alpha (TNF-α). Exercise training is an effective method to decrease the accumulation of fat, and Nesfatin and TNF-α secretion. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of high intensity interval training (HIIT) on serum levels of Nesfatin, Tumor Necrosis Factor alpha and body fat percent in overweight young women.
Methodology: In this quasi-experiment study, 28 overweight young women were randomly and equally divided into two groups: HIIT (mean age: 29.93±2.78 years, body mass index (BMI): 28.1±15.13 kg/m2) and control (mean age: 30.14±3.53 years, BMI: 27.0±74.88 kg/m2). All subjects were healthy and had no history of cardiovascular diseases. The subjects in HIIT group performed 24 sessions of running with maximum speed (eight weeks, three times a week). Blood samples were collected in two stages of pre-test (24 hours before the first training session) and post-test (48 hours after the last training session). Serum levels of Nesfatin and TNF-α were measured using human ELISA kits (biosciences, made in Germany), and the body fat percent was calculated by body analyzer.
Results: In this study, intragroup comparison (using dependent t-test) revealed that high intensity interval training led to a significant reduction in serum levels of Nesfatin, TNF-α and body fat percentage (P=0.004, P=0.014 and P=0.003, respectively). On the other hand, the results of mean comparison between the groups (using independent t-test) were indicative of a significant difference between the groups regarding the serum levels of Nesfatin and TNF-α (P=0.013 and P=0.015, respectively). However, no such difference was found between the groups in terms of body fat percentage (P>0.05).
Discussion: According to the results of this study, levels of Nesfatin and TNF-α are relatively high in overweight people and can expose these individuals to several diseases, such as hypertension, increased inflammation, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. In this study, high intensity interval training was associated with reduced body fat, Nesfatin and TNF-α through lowering the weight of the participants. Hence, high intensity interval training could be effective in reducing inflammatory processes associated with overweight and obesity.