Background: Indoor cycling is an aerobic exercise that employs large muscle groups of the lower limbs, lacking osteoarticular impact and high energy expenditure, which makes it interesting to generate a non-pharmacological strategy.
Objective: To assess body composition and lipid profile in overweight women after twelve weeks of low-calorie diet and indoor cycling training.
Methods: We randomly assigned 40 women (23.90 ± 3.10 years), divided into four groups: control (C), indoor cycling (CI), indoor cycling combined with low-calorie diet (CD) and low-calorie diet (D). The variables were: height and body mass, BMI, fat percentage, lean body mass, triglycerides, cholesterol and lipoproteins (HDL, LDL, VLDL). The indoor cycling training consisted of three weekly sessions of 45 minutes each and an energy restriction of about 1,200 kcal. The study lasted 12 weeks. We used descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (Student's t test). The level of significance was p < 0.05.
Results: The groups CI, CD and D significantly reduced the mean anthropometric variables after 12 weeks of intervention (body mass, fat percentage and body mass index), and serum levels of total cholesterol and triglycerides. HDL cholesterol increased significantly for groups CI and CD.
Conclusion: According to the results, the indoor cycling and the low-calorie diet helped fight overweight and control serum lipids.