The Study
Aerobic, resistance, or combined exercise training and cardiovascular risk profile in overweight or obese adults: the CardioRACE trial
This study is like a fair test where people were randomly picked to do different kinds of exercise and then checked to see how their health markers changed. It shows that aerobic exercise helped more than lifting weights alone—but it didn’t watch people for years to see if they had fewer heart attacks, so we can’t say it definitely prevents heart disease.
Analysis score
Maximum 90 for a randomized controlled trial.
Where the score came from
This study tested if lifting weights, running, or doing both helps your heart more than doing nothing — all for the same amount of time.
Where does this study sit?
Reviews of RCTs (Meta-analyses)
Max 100Randomized Trials
Max 90Reviews of Cohort Studies
Max 85Cohort Studies
Max 72Reviews of Case-Control Studies
Max 63Case-Control Studies
Max 58Cross-Sectional & Case Series
Max 50Expert Opinion
Max 567 / 100
Quality score
Participants are randomly assigned to treatment or control groups, minimizing bias. The gold standard for testing whether an intervention causes an effect.
Key takeaways
Summary
Based on the study abstract and findings.
- 1Yes — losing fat through aerobic exercise improved overall heart risk, even if other numbers like cholesterol didn't change individually.
- 2Running or running + lifting improved heart health scores by about 0.15–0.16 points; lifting alone didn't help.
- 3All groups lost fat, but only running groups saw better heart scores.
Score breakdown, methodology, conflicts of interest, evidence analysis & raw study data
Publication
Journal
European Heart Journal
Year
2024
Authors
Duck-chul Lee, Angelique G. Brellenthin, L. Lanningham-Foster, Marian L Kohut, Yehua Li
Related Content
Claims (6)
If you burn the same number of calories overall, doing both strength training and cardio does not lead to more fat loss in specific areas than doing cardio alone.
For adults with overweight or obesity, doing 30 minutes of cardio and 30 minutes of strength training three times a week for a year has the same effect on overall cardiovascular risk as doing 60 minutes of cardio alone.
Adults with overweight or obesity who engage in supervised aerobic exercise three times a week for one year show a measurable improvement in a combined measure of cardiovascular risk factors, including lower body fat, blood pressure, LDL cholesterol, and fasting glucose, compared to those who do not exercise.
In adults with overweight or obesity, doing resistance training for 60 minutes three times a week for a year does not lead to a meaningful improvement in overall cardiovascular risk markers, even though it reduces body fat and increases muscle strength.
In adults with overweight or obesity, losing body fat is the main reason why their overall cardiovascular risk improves after doing aerobic or combined exercise.
In adults with overweight or obesity, aerobic exercise and combined exercise programs improve cardiorespiratory fitness, measured as VO2peak, with aerobic exercise leading to the greatest gains; resistance training alone has little effect on this measure.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before making health decisions.