Loading ...

TOPLINE:

Among adults with hypertension and overweight or obesity, a 16-week supervised aerobic exercise program combined with a hypocaloric diet reduced leptin levels more than a hypocaloric diet plus physical activity advice alone.

METHODOLOGY:

• Elevated circulating levels of leptin are linked to obesity-related hypertension through selective leptin resistance, impaired metabolic effects, and mitochondrial dysfunction.
• Researchers conducted a substudy of a clinical trial to examine the effects of a 16-week supervised aerobic exercise program combined with a hypocaloric diet on serum leptin levels in 69 physically inactive adults (32 female, 37 male) with stage I/II hypertension and overweight or obesity. Sex-specific differences and the maintenance of leptin changes at 6 months were also assessed.
• Participants were randomly assigned to supervised aerobic exercise (two nonconsecutive moderate- or high-intensity sessions weekly) or an attention control group that received physical activity advice alone; both groups followed a hypocaloric Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension diet, and 47 participants completed the intervention.
• Researchers assessed serum leptin, insulin, C-reactive protein, glucose, BMI, waist and hip circumferences, total body mass, fat-free mass, fat mass, cardiorespiratory fitness (peak oxygen uptake [VO₂] peak), blood pressure, and lipid profiles at baseline and after 16 weeks. Participants were followed for an additional 6 months without supervision.

TAKEAWAY:

• After 16 weeks, leptin levels decreased by 36% from baseline in the supervised exercise group (P = .003) and by 23% in the attention control group (P = .06). Leptin levels declined in both sexes in the exercise-plus-diet group but returned to baseline at the 6-month follow-up.
• BMI was the only independent factor associated with increased leptin levels in all participants (beta-coefficient, 0.339; P < .001), accounting for 12% of the variability. In sex-specific analyses, BMI explained roughly 15% of leptin variation in men and 24% in women.
• Among women, a higher waist‑to‑hip ratio and lower fat‑free mass were also independently associated with higher leptin.
• Changes in BMI and fat mass from baseline to post-intervention correlated significantly with changes in leptin levels (P = .013 and P = .006, respectively).
• At 6 months, the supervised exercise group maintained reductions in fat mass percentage, systolic blood pressure, triglycerides, and C-reactive protein levels, along with improved VO₂ peak. Both groups also maintained lower total body mass, BMI, and waist circumference vs baseline values.

IN PRACTICE:

“A hypocaloric diet combined with supervised aerobic exercise training appears to be an effective strategy for regulating leptin and improving metabolic health in individuals with [hypertension] and overweight or obesity,” the authors of the study wrote.

SOURCE:

The study was led by Virginia A. Aparicio, University of Granada, Granada, Spain. It was published online in Clinical Obesity.

LIMITATIONS:

The study lacked data on food intake and appetite. Menopausal status and menstrual cycle phase were not recorded for female participants. A completer-only analysis was used because some participants missed the postintervention assessment, resulting in missing follow-up data.

DISCLOSURES:

The study received financial support from the University of the Basque Country. One author received funding from the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities of the Government of Spain, funded by Next Generation (Recualificación type). The authors declared having no conflicts of interest.

This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.