Increasing aerobic exercise intensity fails to consistently improve the glycemic response in people living with prediabetes or type 2 diabetes mellitus: The INTENSITY Trial

Some individuals with prediabetes or type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) who engage in exercise will not experience the anticipated improvements in glycemic control, referred to as non-responders. Increasing exercise intensity may improve the proportion of individuals who become responders. The objectives were to: 1) Identify responders and non-responders based on changes in glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) in individuals with prediabetes or T2DM following 16 weeks of aerobic exercise; 2) Investigate if increasing exercise intensity enhances the responders’ status for individuals not previously responding favourably to the intervention. Participants (n = 40; age = 58.0 years [52.0 – 66.0]; HbA1c = 7.0% [6.0 – 7.2]) engaged in a two-phase, randomized study design. During phase one, participants performed 16 weeks of treadmill-based, supervised, aerobic exercise at 4.5 metabolic equivalents (METs) for 150 minutes per week. Thereafter, participants were categorized as responders, non-responders or unclear based on the 90% confidence interval (CI) above, below, or crossing a 0.3% reduction in HbA1c. For phase two, participants were randomized to a maintained intensity (4.5 METs) or increased intensity (6.0 METs) group for 12 weeks. Following phase one, two (4.1%) participants were categorized as responders, four (8.2%) as non-responders, and 43 (87.7%) as unclear. Following phase two, two from the increased intensity group and one from the maintained group experienced an improvement in response categorization. There were no significant between or within group (maintained vs. increased) differences in HbA1c. For most people with prediabetes or T2DM, increasing exercise intensity by 1.5 METs does not improve response categorization.