Exercising one to two times per week for least 150 minutes can reduce BMI, adiposity
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Key takeaways:
- Adults who exercised one to two times per week had better body composition measures than inactive adults.
- Adults in the “weekend warrior” group had a lower BMI than adults who were regularly active.
Adults who exercise for at least 150 minutes per week in one to two sessions have similar body composition measures as adults who exercised a combined 150 minutes across three or more sessions, according to study data published in Obesity.
In an analysis of data from four National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey cycles from 2011 to 2018, adults defined as “weekend warriors” who exercised only one to two times per week had lower BMI, waist circumference, whole-body fat mass and abdominal adiposity than adults who exercised fewer than 150 minutes per week. Lihua Zhang, MD, PhD, researcher and assistant professor at the National Clinical Research Center for Cardiovascular Diseases at Fuwai Hospital, and at the National Center for Cardiovascular Diseases at Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College in Beijing, said the findings reveal how exercise consolidated into a couple of days per week can benefit adults.
“Guideline-recommended total physical activity time distributed evenly or concentrated into one or two days per week could be both effective for improving fat deposition profiles,” Zhang told Healio.
Zhang and colleagues obtained data from 9,629 adults aged 20 to 59 years who participated in NHANES from 2011 to 2018 (mean age, 39 years; 51.6% men). Physical activity frequency and duration were self-reported in the Global Physical Activity Questionnaire. Regularly active adults were those who performed at least 150 minutes of physical activity in more than two sessions (n = 3,277), weekend warriors were adults who completed 150 minutes or more of physical activity in one to two weekly sessions (n = 772) and inactive adults were those who performed less than 150 minutes of physical activity per week (n = 5,580). Abdominal adiposity and whole-body fat mass were assessed through DXA scan. BMI and waist circumference were collected.
Compared with regularly active and inactive adults, weekend warriors had higher total physical activity intensity and longer physical activity sessions. Regularly active adults had a lower abdominal adiposity (beta = –0.18; 95% CI, –0.29 to –0.07), waist circumference (beta = –1.31; 95% CI, –2.32 to –0.29), whole-body fat mass (beta = –0.11; 95% CI, –0.18 to –0.04) and BMI (beta = –0.47; 95% CI, –0.89 to –0.04) than inactive adults. Similarly, adults in the weekend warrior group had a lower abdominal adiposity (beta = –0.24; 95% CI, –0.38 to –0.1), waist circumference (beta = –1.94; 95% CI, –3.16 to –0.73), whole-body fat mass (beta = –0.16; 95% CI, –0.25 to –0.08) and BMI (beta = –0.78; 95% CI, –1.27 to –0.28) compared with the inactive group.
The weekend warrior group had a lower BMI than the regularly active group (beta = –0.64; 95% CI, –1.23 to –0.06). No differences were observed between the two groups for the other body composition measures.
In subgroup analyses, women in the regularly active (beta = –0.99; 95% CI, –1.51 to –0.46) and weekend warrior groups (beta = –1.98; 95% CI, –2.83 to –1.14) had a lower BMI than those in the inactive group. No differences in BMI were observed between the three groups for men. Adults younger than 45 years in the weekend warrior group had a lower BMI that inactive younger adults (beta = –0.87; 95% CI, –1.42 to –0.31), whereas adults aged 45 years and older who were regularly active had a lower BMI than inactive older adults (beta = –0.9; 95% CI, –1.41 to –0.4).
Zhang said future studies should be performed using accelerometer data to provide more objective measurement of physical activity as well as among adults aged 60 years and older.
“Physical activity was only collected once due to the cross-sectional design,” Zhang said. “Further longitudinal studies could account for changes over time or the causal relationship between physical activity patterns and body fat reduction.”
For more information:
Lihua Zhang, MD, PhD, can be reached at zhanglihua@fuwai.com.
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