The Effect of Walking Exercise on Physical Fitness and Serum Lipids in Obese Middle-aged Women: Pilot Study

[Purpose] This study was conducted to identify the effects of walking on the body composition, health-related physical fitness, and serum lipids as part of efforts to encourage middle-aged people to participate in walking as a regular and sustainable exercise. [Methods] This study was conducted as a pretest-posttest control group study. The study period was for 12 weeks from January to March 2010. The participants were 43 middle-aged women (age range: 40–55 years) with body fat rates over 30%. Subjects in the experiment group participated in the walking exercise (n = 38), the control group did not participate in the exercise (n = 23). [Results] In the exercise group, statistically significant reductions in weight and body fat were observed among the body composition measurement variables, and statistically significant increases in flexibility and cardiopulmonary endurance were observed among the physical fitness measurement variables. TC, TG, and LDL-C levels in the serum lipid measurement variables showed a statistically significant reduction in the exercise group. [Conclusion] The results of this study showed that 12 weeks of walking exercise influenced middle-aged women in a positive way by effecting changes in their body composition, physical fitness, and serum lipids. We believe that these positive changes result in positive effects on the factors for prevention of various adult diseases that can occur in middle-aged women.