Effects of aerobic exercise combined with resistance training on body composition and metabolic health in children and adolescents with overweight or obesity: systematic review and meta-analysis.

Researchers pooled data from 29 studies involving over 2,000 children and teenagers with overweight or obesity to see what happens when you combine aerobic exercise with resistance training. The combined approach showed meaningful improvements across a wide range of measures, including body weight, waist size, body fat percentage, cardiovascular fitness, and various blood markers related to metabolism and blood sugar control. Interestingly, one marker of inflammation (hs-CRP) did not change meaningfully, suggesting the benefits are real but not universal across every possible health measure.

The analysis also found that how often and how long the exercise was done affected how well it worked, which makes sense given that fitness adaptations typically require consistent stimulus over time.

This study looked at what happens to young people's bodies and health when they do both cardio exercise and strength training together. The research found that this combination approach improved many aspects of physical health, including weight, body shape, fitness levels, and blood sugar control.

The changes weren't massive, but they appeared across multiple measures of health, which suggests the benefits were genuine and broad rather than just showing up in one or two places. What's also worth knowing is that the amount of exercise mattered, and the studies that went on for longer and had more frequent sessions tended to show better results than those that were shorter or less frequent.

The research doesn't tell us that everyone will respond the same way, since different young people have different bodies and different starting points.

This is a summary of research, not medical advice. Talk to your own healthcare provider about anything affecting your care.

This meta-analysis synthesises evidence for a combined aerobic and resistance training approach in the paediatric overweight and obesity population, drawing on a reasonable sample size across 29 trials. The effect appears to span multiple relevant domains, body composition metrics (BMI, waist circumference, fat mass, body fat percentage), aerobic capacity (VO2max), and metabolic parameters (triglycerides, total cholesterol, HDL-C, LDL-C, insulin resistance markers, and fasting glucose).

One notable null finding was hs-CRP, which did not shift meaningfully despite improvements in other inflammatory or metabolic proxies, a pattern worth considering when counselling families about expectations. The subgroup analysis suggesting that intervention frequency and duration influenced outcomes aligns with fundamental exercise physiology but is somewhat obvious, leaving open whether there are more nuanced factors affecting individual response that the current evidence base has not isolated.

The recommendation of 3+ sessions per week at 60+ minutes per week for 12+ weeks represents a pragmatic threshold derived from the included studies rather than an optimised prescription derived from dose-response analysis.