SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article
Front. Nutr.
Sec. Sport and Exercise Nutrition
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnut.2025.1653449
Unveiling the Perfect Workout: Exercise Modalities and Dosages to Ameliorate Adipokine Dysregulation in individuals with overweight and obesity: A Systematic Review with Pairwise, Network, and Dose-Response Meta-Analyses
Provisionally accepted
- Capital Institute of Physical Education and Sports, Beijing, China
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Objective: To systematically evaluate the effects of different exercise modalities—AE, RT, COM, HIIT—and their dosages on the regulation of adipokines (leptin and adiponectin) in individuals with overweight and obesity. Methods: A comprehensive search of Cochrane, Embase, PubMed, Web of Science, and EBSCO databases was conducted for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) published from 2000 to January 2025. A random-effects Bayesian model was used to perform pairwise, network, and dose-response meta-analyses to compare the effects of various exercise interventions and their doses. Meta-regression was conducted to explore moderating effects of age, sex, BMI, and body fat percentage. Results: A total of 61 RCTs involving 3,069 participants were included. Network meta-analysis showed that all exercise types significantly increased adiponectin, with HIIT having the greatest effect (SMD = 0.85, 95% CrI: 0.24–1.45; SUCRA = 68%), followed by RT, AE, and COM. For leptin, COM was most effective (SMD = -0.99, 95% CrI: -1.48 to -0.51; SUCRA = 84%), followed by AE and HIIT; RT showed no significant effect. Dose-response analysis revealed an inverted U-shaped relationship between exercise and adiponectin (optimal dose ≈880 MET-min/week), and a negative linear relationship for leptin (notable effect starting at ≈770 MET-min/week), with variation by modality. Meta-regression indicated that age and BMI were positively associated with adiponectin improvements, while BMI and body fat percentage were positively correlated with leptin reductions; age was negatively associated with changes in leptin. No significant moderating effect of sex was found. Conclusion: This study provides moderate-quality evidence supporting HIIT, COM, and AE in improving adipokine profiles among individuals with overweight and obesity, with modality-specific effects. The identified dose-response patterns emphasize the importance of individualized exercise prescriptions, recommending moderate to high doses (≈800–1300 MET-min/week) for optimal metabolic benefits. Further studies are warranted to explore inter-individual variability and long-term outcomes.
Keywords: Exercise, Adipokine, Adiponectin, Leptin, Overweight, Obesity, Meta-analysis
Received: 25 Jun 2025; Accepted: 31 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wang, Wang, Zhang and Liu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Xiaodong Liu, Capital Institute of Physical Education and Sports, Beijing, China
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