TOPLINE
Adolescents with obesity who completed a 6-month remotely supervised high-intensity interval training (HIIT) program alongside standard care experienced reductions in BMI, BMI z-score, and waist circumference (WC) compared with those receiving standard care alone. These improvements in body composition and physical fitness were sustained for at least 12 months after the supervised sessions ended.
METHODOLOGY
- A quasi-experimental study enrolled 96 adolescents aged 12-17 years with obesity (BMI z-score ≥2) from a pediatric obesity outpatient clinic in São Paulo, Brazil, between September 2021 and January 2024.
- Participants were assigned to an experimental group (EG; n = 50) that underwent a real-time, remotely supervised HIIT program (~20 min, 4 times per week for 6 months) via videoconference plus standard care, or a control group (CG; n = 46) receiving standard care alone.
- Standard care included medical evaluation, nutritional counseling, and follow-up appointments per Brazilian Society of Pediatrics guidelines.
- Primary outcomes included changes in anthropometrics (WC, BMI, BMI z-score) and body composition (body fat mass percentage, skeletal muscle mass percentage) at 6 and 12 months, along with physical fitness measures (flexibility and muscular endurance).
- Assessments were conducted at baseline, 6 months (post-intervention), and 12 months (follow-up); EG participants were included in analyses if they attended at least 80% of training sessions during the intervention period.
TAKEAWAY
- Group-by-time interaction analyses showed greater reductions in the EG compared with the CG for WC (P = .004), BMI (P <.001), and BMI z-score (P = .002) at 6 months.
- Within the EG, significant improvements were observed in flexibility (P <.001) and muscular endurance (P = .016) at 6 months.
- A significant group-by-time interaction was observed for water intake (P = .042), with the EG showing increased consumption.
- During the 6- to 12-month follow-up period, no statistically significant changes occurred in body composition, physical fitness, or nutritional behaviors among the 27 EG participants who completed the full study.
- Appearance-related motivation was negatively associated with program engagement (P = .049), while fitness-related motivation scored highest among engagement categories at baseline, though this pattern was not statistically significant (P = 1.000).
IN PRACTICE
“The remotely supervised HIIT program, integrated with a multicomponent clinical treatment for obesity in adolescents, was effective in promoting weight loss and improving body composition and physical fitness, with sustained effects for at least 12 months of follow-up,” wrote the authors of the study.
“Such programs represent a viable and scalable alternative for adolescents with limited access to face‐to‐face services, contributing significantly to public health strategies for obesity management,” they added.
SOURCE
The study was led by Fábio de Freitas, Department of Pediatrics, Unicamp School of Medical Sciences, São Paulo, Brazil. It was published online in Obesity Science & Practice.
LIMITATIONS
The small sample size and high dropout rates (26% during intervention, 27% during follow-up) reduced statistical power for some secondary analyses. The quasi-experimental design without randomization or blinding, along with the unavailability of comparable control group data for skeletal muscle mass, flexibility, and muscular endurance, limits causal inference. Self-reported behavioral outcomes may be subject to recall or social desirability bias, and socioeconomic characteristics were not assessed.
DISCLOSURES
The study was supported by grants from the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES), Brazil. The authors reported no relevant conflicts of interest.
This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.
