the effect of rhythmic aerobic exercise training on rest visfatin levels and some metabolic risk factors in overweight women

visfatin is a newly discovered adipokine which increases along with obesity. it is not clear whether rhythmic aerobic endurance exercise training which induces changes in adipose tissue and blood lipid might decrease the plasma visfatin level. the aim of this study was to examine the effect of rhythmic aerobic endurance exercise training on rest visfatin levels some metabolic risk factors in obese women. 23 obese female university students (mean age 18 to 29 years, body mass index (bmi)?30 kg/ m2 and waist circumference?88 cm who did not participated in any regular training program) participated in this study and were randomly divided into experimental (n=13) and control (n=10) groups. the experimental group participated in a rhythmic aerobic exercise program (8 weeks, 3 sessions per week, one hour each session) with 55% hrmax in the first sessions, and gradually reaching 70% hrmax in the last session. fasting visfatin and insulin were measured by an enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (elisa). cholesterol, triglyceride, lipoprotein with high and low density and glucose were measured by enzymatic system and insulin resistance was estimated using homa equation. in order to compare data within groups, dependent t test and to compare between groups, independent t test was used (??0. 05). the findings of this study showed that after 8 weeks of aerobic rhythmic exercise, serum level of plasma visfatin significantly decreased (p=0.002). the results showed that plasma triglyceride (p=0.04), plasma cholesterol (p=0.02) and plasma ldl (p=0.01) significantly decreased while plasma hdl significantly increased (p=0.005). insulin, glucose and insulin resistance did not significantly change. overall, it appears that rhythmic aerobic exercise training can decrease visfatin level in overweight women through reducing body fat percentage, waist and hip circumference, weight, ldl, triglyceride and cholesterol and increasing hdl.