Low intensity aerobic exercise of longer duration resulted in more sustained improvement in insulin sensitivity than higher intensity for a shorter time period. Patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) were examined to determine whether exercise programs differing in duration and intensity had different effects on insulin sensitivity (oral glucose tolerance test, ISI) following a 12-week exercise program. Inactive T2DM patients (age 51.2 ± 1.3 years) were assigned to 5 sessions/week and 240 kcal/session of either a low-intensity (50% VO(2peak), n = 27) or a high-intensity exercise group (75% VO(2peak), n = 28). Insulin sensitivity (ISI) increased in both groups 16-24 h after the final exercise session. The interesting fact is that only the low-intensity group had elevated ISI 15 days after the end of training despite each group burning about the same amount of calories per session. The low intensity group spent about 56 minutes per session and the high intensity group about 34 minutes per session. These findings suggest that in T2DM patients, improvements in insulin sensitivity may rely more on exercise duration than exercise intensity. (17)
