HIIT As An Effective Method To Reduce Visceral Fat Area In Short Term

Abstract

The lack of time for physical activity is a position that prevails in sedentary people. The low level of physical activity, coupled with factors such as poor diet has been related to the development of metabolic syndrome. HIIT is a modality that increases the level of physical activity with positive effects on cardiorespiratory variables, however, there is insufficient evidence of the effect on body composition. PURPOSE: to analyze the effect of a HIIT on body composition in sedentary adults. METHODS: twelve sedentary adults (50% women) 31.5 ± 5.4 years old, participated in 16 sessions (three per week) treadmill HIIT. Height (168.3 ± 8.6cm), body weight (BW) (80.8 ± 18.0kg), muscle mass (MM) (30.1 ± 6.9kg), body fat percentage (BFP) (33.2 ± 4.3%) and visceral fat area (VFA) (126.3 ± 39.5 cm2) were measured. An initial measurement (M1), after session eight (M2) and 16 (M3) were made. HIIT consisted of three minutes warmup at 40% of your maximal aerobic speed (MAS), five one-minute intervals (80% MAS) with one-minute breaks (50% MAS), followed by a five-minute recovery (40% MAS). MAS was estimated with the 30-15 Intermittent Fitness Test. RESULTS: a mixed two-way ANOVA without significant variation between sex and measurements (p = .942) was applied. In the same way, with a one-way ANOVA of related samples, no differences were found in BW (% ∆ = -0.4; p = .237; ƞ 2 = .123), MM (% ∆ = 1.3; p = .142; ƞ 2 = .162) BFP (% ∆ = -1.2; p = .444; ƞ 2 = .071) among the three measurements. Differences in VFA (126.3 ± 39.5cm 2 and 117.0 ± 40.8cm 2; p = 0.002; ƞ 2 = .472) were found between M1 and M3, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: these results indicate that 16 sessions of high intensity interval training, lasting 17 minutes per session, decrease the visceral fat of sedentary people.