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SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article

Front. Nutr.
Sec. Sport and Exercise Nutrition
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnut.2025.1518143
This article is part of the Research Topic Preventative Medicine: Nutritional and Lifestyle Interventions for Healthy Ageing and Chronic Diseases View all 27 articles

The Effect of Long-Term Exercise on Circulating Ghrelin in Overweight and Obese Individuals: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Provisionally accepted
Xianyang Xin Xianyang Xin *Hai Wang Hai Wang Yongqing Guo Yongqing Guo Jun Xie Jun Xie *
  • Capital university of physical education and sports, Capital Institute of Physical Education and Sports, Beijing, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Objective: Ghrelin, also known as the "hunger hormone", is a pivotal hormone in controlling appetite and is the only known gastrointestinal hormone that promotes food intake, contributing to the regulation of energy balance and body weight. However, studies on the long-term effects of exercise on ghrelin levels in obese populations have shown conflicting results. The aim of this paper is to summarize RCT experiments exploring changes in ghrelin levels after exercise in obese or overweight people by meta-analysis.Methods: This study employed meta-analytical techniques, searching databases such as PubMed, Web of Science, and EMBASE to collect research on exercise and ghrelin. The quality of the studies was assessed according to the Cochrane Handbook standards, and data analysis on Ghrelin, BMI, and weight was performed using RevMan 5.4 and Stata 16.0 software. A total of 13 interventions involving 944 participants were included to systematically investigate the regulatory effects of exercise on ghrelin levels in obese and overweight individuals. Meta-analytical results were calculated using standardized mean differences (SMD).Results: Exercise interventions significantly increased ghrelin levels (SMD =1.16, 95% CI = 0.52 to 1.80, P < 0.0001), with high inter-study heterogeneity (I²=90%). Subgroup analysis suggested that RT and AE+RT were more effective compared to AE. For BMI, exercise led to a significant reduction (SMD = -0.43, 95% CI = -0.69 to -0.16, P = 0.002), with low heterogeneity (I² = 21%). Similarly, exercise significantly reduced weight (SMD = -0.54, 95% CI = -0.98 to -0.11, P = 0.01), though with high heterogeneity (I²=75%). These results suggest exercise effectively improves ghrelin levels, BMI, and weight.Conclusion: Prolonged exercise interventions demonstrated a statistically significant effect on ghrelin levels. This indicates that exercise interventions can elevate ghrelin levels, which may be associated with reductions in BMI and weight.Systematic Review Registration: https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/, identifier CRD42024588259.

    Keywords: Ghrelin, Exercise, overweight and obese, chronic exercise, Appetite, metaanalysis

    Received: 28 Oct 2024; Accepted: 03 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Xin, Wang, Guo and Xie. 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:
    Xianyang Xin, Capital university of physical education and sports, Capital Institute of Physical Education and Sports, Beijing, China
    Jun Xie, Capital university of physical education and sports, Capital Institute of Physical Education and Sports, Beijing, China

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