Study
Combined Aerobic-Resistance Training and Taurine Supplementation Reduce Asprosin and Elevate Spexin in Men with Obesity: A 12-Week Supplement-Blinded, Randomized Controlled Trial.
In 44 men with obesity, taurine plus exercise improved reported adipokines and body composition after 12 weeks, but the trial was small.
Summary Does taurine plus exercise improve weight and metabolism in men with obesity? Show / hide ↓
Researchers randomly assigned 44 men with obesity to take taurine, exercise, both, or a placebo, an inactive substitute, for 12 weeks. Taurine was taken at 3 grams a day, while the exercise group did aerobic workouts and weight training. The researchers measured body fat and asprosin and spexin, hormones linked to appetite and metabolism. The group taking taurine and exercising lost about 1.80 points in body mass index, a measure based on height and weight, and 4.90 percentage points of body fat. This group also had larger changes in the measured hormones, but the study was small and some numerical results were not fully reported.
What this means for you: This provides early evidence about a combined exercise-and-taurine program, not proof that taurine alone works. Exercise has broader established benefits, while this small study does not justify buying taurine for weight loss or longer life.
early evidenceThis supplement-blinded, randomised, placebo-controlled trial allocated 44 men with obesity, defined as BMI at least 30 kg/m2, to four groups of 11: placebo control, taurine alone, exercise plus placebo, or exercise plus taurine. Taurine was given at 3 g/day for 12 weeks. The exercise programme combined aerobic sessions at 60% heart-rate reserve with progressive resistance training at 60% of one-repetition maximum; training loads were re-estimated every four weeks. Outcomes included plasma asprosin, spexin and body-fat percentage, with body fat measured by bioelectrical impedance analysis. The abstract reports significant group-by-time interactions for all five outcomes, but portions of the numerical results are truncated. It does state that the combined exercise-plus-taurine group had reductions in BMI of 1.80 kg/m2 (p=0.002) and body-fat percentage of 4.90%, and that the combined intervention outperformed either component in the authors' analysis. This does not isolate a taurine effect from the full exercise-plus-supplement package. The reported endpoints are adipokines and body composition over 12 weeks, not clinical events or long-term health outcomes. The authors themselves describe the findings as preliminary and exploratory.
Combined aerobic-resistance training with taurine produced greater improvements in adipokine regulation and body composition than either modality alone, but the findings are preliminary and exploratory.
There were only 11 men per group and follow-up was 12 weeks. The comparison of a combined intervention with single components cannot cleanly separate taurine's effect, and the main endpoints were surrogate adipokines and bioimpedance-based body fat.
Cited by
1 encyclopedia entries reference this study.