Evidence library · Body fat and weight

Does water-based exercise affect body fat and weight in menopause? What 8 studies found

Studies of water-based exercise in perimenopausal and postmenopausal women that measured body fat and weight. 8 reported an improvement and 0 found no difference against the comparison group.

  1. Postmenopausal women with mild knee osteoarthritis did 4 months of intensive aquatic resistance training and showed decreased fat mass and faster walking speed, with walking speed gains maintained at 12 months.

    Reported an improvementRandomised trial · 87 women · 16 weeks · 2017PostmenopausalCited 72 timesPubMed

  2. Sedentary postmenopausal women did 24 weeks of aquatic resistance exercise or elastic band training, both reducing body fat and blood pressure and improving strength and fitness tests similarly.

    Reported an improvementRandomised trial · 46 women · 24 weeks · 2009PostmenopausalCited 69 timesPubMed

  3. In 40 overweight or obese postmenopausal women with low vitamin D, 8 weeks of water-based aerobic training with vitamin D3 improved BMI, grip strength, balance and gait speed more than either alone.

    Reported an improvementRandomised trial · 40 women · 8 weeks · 2025PostmenopausalCited 5 timesPubMed

  4. In postmenopausal women, 8 weeks of aquatic exercise under mild hypoxic conditions reduced body fat and increased adiponectin more than the same exercise under normal oxygen conditions.

    Reported an improvementRandomised trial · 14 women · 8 weeks · 2016PostmenopausalCited 8 timesPubMed

  5. Sedentary postmenopausal hypertensive women doing 8 weeks of aerobic exercise in mineral spring water showed reduced blood pressure and body fat and improved fitness versus controls.

    Reported an improvementRandomised trial · 20 women · 8 weeks · 2020PostmenopausalCited 6 timesPubMed

  6. Pre and postmenopausal women did aqua plus resistance training for 10 weeks; both groups reduced body fat and leptin, but fat-hormone correlations differed by menopause status.

    Reported an improvementControlled trial · 18 women · 10 weeks · 2002Midlife womenCited 24 timesPubMed

  7. Postmenopausal women trained using weight machines, elastic bands, or aquatic resistance devices, and all three groups improved fat mass, fat free mass, and strength test performance.

    Reported an improvementControlled trial · 2012PostmenopausalCited 28 timesPubMed

  8. Postmenopausal women did 24 weeks of strength training or hydro gymnastics, with both groups showing improved cardiorespiratory fitness and strength training also reducing body mass index.

    Reported an improvementControlled trial · 38 women · 24 weeks · 2014PostmenopausalCited 3 timesPubMed

How to read this. Each line is one study, summarised in plain language from its PubMed abstract, with the authors' own sentence underneath on the study page. A count of studies is not a verdict: trials differ in size, length and quality, and a result in one group of women may not hold in another. Nothing here is medical advice.

Summaries are generated, then checked by machine against the abstract they came from; any summary that could not be matched word for word was left out. Our clinical lead is reviewing the summaries topic by topic, and this note will change when that is done. Corpus last refreshed 2026-11-03. Spotted a mistake? Tell us and we will fix the summary or remove the study.

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