Exercise Training Amount and Intensity Effects on Metabolic Syndrome (from Studies of a Targeted Risk Reduction Intervention through Defined Exercise)

Although exercise improves individual risk factors for metabolic syndrome (MS), there is little research on the effect of exercise on MS as a whole. The objective of this study was to determine how much exercise is recommended to decrease the prevalence of MS. Of 334 subjects randomly assigned, 227 finished and 171 (80 women, 91 men) had complete data for all 5 Adult Treatment Panel III–defined MS risk factors and were included in this analysis. Subjects were randomly assigned to a 6-month control or 1 of 3 eight-month exercise training groups of (1) low amount/moderate intensity (equivalent to walking ∼19 km/week), (2) low amount/vigorous intensity (equivalent to jogging ∼19 km/week), or (3) high amount/vigorous intensity (equivalent to jogging ∼32 km/week). The low-amount/moderate-intensity exercise prescription improved MS relative to inactive controls (p