High intensity interval exercise maintains irisin level and reduces body fat in overweight women

A body mass index of more than 23 kg/m2 refers to being overweight. When overweight is not treated well, it can lead to obesity which is the condition of accumulation of excess adipose tissue. Obesity increases the risk of metabolic disease and physical activity has been known to prevent it. Irisin has been established to have a positive correlation with body fat burning. The purpose of this study is to analyse the acute effect of high intensity interval exercise on irisin level and body fat percentage in overweight sedentary women. Subjects were divided into 2 groups, the experimental (EXP) group (n = 10) and the control (CON) group (n = 10). The EXP group was using an ergo cycle of 10 sets, consisting of 60 s at 80-90% HRmax (cycling ~120 rpm) and 60 s of active resting (cycling ~40 rpm), intermittently. Blood serum and body fat percentage were measured before treatment and after 60 min of treatment. The results showed the serum irisin level was insignificant differences between EXP and CON groups. However, there was a significant decrease of irisin level between pre- and post-data in both EXP and CON, and the significant decrease of it between pre and post was in control group (EXP 6.65 ± 0.767 vs 5.76 ± 0.825, P = 0.05; CON 7.46 ± 1.659 vs 5.80 ± 0.935 ng/ml, P = 0.005). The change in body fat percentage was significant lower in EXP compared to CON (0.30 ± 0.217; 0.23 ± 0.118%; P = 0.045). The conclusion is that the acute effect of HIIE can maintain the irisin level, and may also maintain the burning of body fat, which will lead to the reduction of body fat.