The Study
Effects of aerobic, resistance, and combined exercise training on body fat and glucolipid metabolism in inactive middle-aged adults with overweight or obesity: a randomized trial
This study showed that if you're a middle-aged man who doesn't exercise much, doing different kinds of workouts (like walking, lifting weights, or both) can change your blood sugar and cholesterol in different ways. But it doesn't prove that one type is better for everyone—just for these 20 guys in this study.
Analysis score
Maximum 90 for a randomized controlled trial.
Where the score came from
Three groups of overweight men tried different workouts for 8 weeks: lifting weights, cardio, or both. All lost similar amounts of fat and improved good cholesterol, but only weight lifting lowered blood sugar the most, while cardio lowered bad cholesterol best.
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 566 / 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 — weight lifting is better for blood sugar control, cardio is better for cholesterol, but all workouts help lose fat and boost good cholesterol equally.
- 2Body fat dropped 6–7% in all groups.
- 3HDL went up 10–14% in all.
- 4Weight lifting lowered blood sugar 11.53% more than cardio.
- 5Cardio and combo workouts lowered bad cholesterol 3.7–3.8% more than weight lifting.
- 6Cardio lowered total cholesterol 7.97% more than weight lifting.
Score breakdown, methodology, conflicts of interest, evidence analysis & raw study data
Publication
Journal
BMC Sports Science, Medicine and Rehabilitation
Year
2024
Authors
Friew Amare, Yehualaw Alemu, Mollalign Enichalew, Yalemsew Demilie, S. Adamu
Related Content
Claims (4)
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 inactive middle-aged men with overweight or obesity, 8 weeks of resistance training leads to a larger improvement in blood sugar control during a glucose tolerance test than aerobic training.
For inactive middle-aged men with overweight or obesity, doing aerobic exercise or a mix of aerobic and strength training for 8 weeks lowers LDL cholesterol slightly more than doing strength training alone.
For inactive middle-aged men with overweight or obesity, doing aerobic exercise for 8 weeks lowers total cholesterol levels more than doing resistance training.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before making health decisions.