An interventional study of Unilateral Resistance Training in Obesity (BMI > 35), sponsored by Karolinska Institutet. Recruiting at 1 site in Sweden. Open to female participants aged 18 Years to 64 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-11-03.
Sponsored by Karolinska Institutet · Not applicable, Interventional, and Treatment
Treatment with incretin-based obesity medications leads to clinically meaningful weight loss and reduced cardiometabolic risk. However, the weight lost includes not only adipose tissue but also skeletal muscle, which may impair physical function and metabolic health.
Resistance training is an effective strategy to maintain or increase skeletal muscle mass during weight loss, but its effects during treatment with incretin-based obesity medications have not been studied. This study will investigate whether unilateral resistance training during incretin-based receptor agonist treatment can preserve or improve skeletal muscle volume. The study will also examine whether training affects muscle strength and fatigue tolerance, body composition, cardiac structure and function, and molecular profiles in skeletal muscle, adipose tissue and blood.
Participants will be women with obesity who are about to start treatment with an incretin-based receptor agonist as part of routine clinical care. During the 13-week intervention, participants will perform supervised unilateral resistance training twice weekly, training one leg while the other leg serves as an internal control. Assessments before treatment start and after 13 weeks include whole-body and cardiac magnetic resonance imaging, blood sampling, skeletal muscle and adipose tissue biopsies, knee-extensor strength and fatigue tests, and questionnaires. An additional intermediate sampling of blood and tissue (week 4-6) will be collected only in participants who consent to an extra visit.
11,522 studies on the registry are indexed under Obesity; 2,033 are open to participants now.
This study's planned enrollment of 20 is below the median of 67 across 9,006 interventional studies indexed under Obesity.
Browse Obesity studies →Karolinska Institutet is the lead sponsor of 1,148 studies on the registry; 276 are open to participants now.
Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.
The criteria were revised on the registry on Oct 16, 2026. See what changed
Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.
Exclusion Criteria:
Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Weight in kilograms divided by height in metres squared. Example: 70 kg and 1.75 m gives 70 ÷ (1.75 × 1.75) ≈ 22.9.
What counts as overweight or obesity differs between countries (some use lower cut-offs), so go by the range the study states.
Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.
You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.
A reason a treatment, test or procedure should not be given to a particular person, such as an allergy, another illness or a medicine they take.
A biopsy takes a small piece of tissue to examine. “Archival tissue” is a sample already taken, for example at diagnosis, and kept by the hospital.
Whether a stored sample will do depends on when it was taken, how much there is and what the study needs. Ask whether the study accepts your stored sample or needs a new biopsy.
The New York Heart Association’s four classes of how much heart failure limits physical activity.
Studies set their own limit — many outside heart failure leave out class III–IV, while heart failure studies may ask for a particular class. Check the class this study names.
How quickly the kidneys clear creatinine, a waste product, from the blood. A study may estimate it from a blood test with age, weight and sex (often by the Cockcroft–Gault formula), or measure it using blood and urine collected over a set time. Given in mL/min; higher is better.
GFR (glomerular filtration rate) is how much blood the kidneys filter each minute. It is usually estimated from a blood test — eGFR, by formulas such as CKD-EPI or MDRD — and some studies ask for it to be measured directly instead. Usually given in mL/min/1.73 m².
Check the method, the units and the minimum the study states. A value of 90 or above is in the normal-or-high range, but kidney damage can show in other tests too.
Judged by the study doctor to matter for your health or for the study. It is a doctor’s decision, so ask the study team if you are unsure whether something counts.
An allergy, or another reaction of the immune system, to a substance. “Hypersensitivity to the study drug” means a known allergic reaction to it — not every side effect a medicine can have.
The other ingredients in a medicine besides the active drug, such as fillers, colours or preservatives.
BMI (body mass index)
Weight in kilograms divided by height in metres squared. Example: 70 kg and 1.75 m gives 70 ÷ (1.75 × 1.75) ≈ 22.9.
What counts as overweight or obesity differs between countries (some use lower cut-offs), so go by the range the study states.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Informed consent
Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.
You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Contraindication
A reason a treatment, test or procedure should not be given to a particular person, such as an allergy, another illness or a medicine they take.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Biopsy and archival tissue
A biopsy takes a small piece of tissue to examine. “Archival tissue” is a sample already taken, for example at diagnosis, and kept by the hospital.
Whether a stored sample will do depends on when it was taken, how much there is and what the study needs. Ask whether the study accepts your stored sample or needs a new biopsy.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
NYHA class (heart failure)
The New York Heart Association’s four classes of how much heart failure limits physical activity.
Studies set their own limit — many outside heart failure leave out class III–IV, while heart failure studies may ask for a particular class. Check the class this study names.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Creatinine clearance (CrCl)
How quickly the kidneys clear creatinine, a waste product, from the blood. A study may estimate it from a blood test with age, weight and sex (often by the Cockcroft–Gault formula), or measure it using blood and urine collected over a set time. Given in mL/min; higher is better.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
GFR and eGFR (kidney filtering)
GFR (glomerular filtration rate) is how much blood the kidneys filter each minute. It is usually estimated from a blood test — eGFR, by formulas such as CKD-EPI or MDRD — and some studies ask for it to be measured directly instead. Usually given in mL/min/1.73 m².
Check the method, the units and the minimum the study states. A value of 90 or above is in the normal-or-high range, but kidney damage can show in other tests too.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Clinically significant
Judged by the study doctor to matter for your health or for the study. It is a doctor’s decision, so ask the study team if you are unsure whether something counts.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Hypersensitivity
An allergy, or another reaction of the immune system, to a substance. “Hypersensitivity to the study drug” means a known allergic reaction to it — not every side effect a medicine can have.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Excipients
The other ingredients in a medicine besides the active drug, such as fillers, colours or preservatives.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Participants will initiate incretin-based receptor agonist treatment as part of routine clinical care. The study intervention consists of supervised unilateral resistance training performed twice weekly for 13 weeks. No incretin-based medication is assigned or administered by the study.
Behavioral: Unilateral Resistance Training
Supervised resistance training of one leg, two sessions per week for 13 weeks, during incretin-based receptor agonist treatment. The trained leg will be randomly assigned, and the contralateral leg will serve as an internal within-participant control.
Change in Anterior Thigh Skeletal Muscle Volume
Change in skeletal muscle volume (L) of the anterior thigh muscles, measured by magnetic resonance imaging from baseline to 13 weeks. The primary comparison will be the difference in change from baseline to 13 weeks between the trained leg and the untrained contralateral leg. Images are analysed by an independent image-analysis service using standardised, automated segmentation, blinded to which leg was trained.
Time frame: From baseline to 13 weeks
Change in isometric knee extension strength
Change in lower-limb muscle strength measured using isometric (Nm) knee extension tests.
Time frame: From baseline to 13 weeks
Change in isokinetic knee extension strength
Change in lower-limb muscle strength measured using isokinetic (Nm) knee extension tests at 60°/s and 270°/s (Nm).
Time frame: From baseline to 13 weeks
Change in muscle fatigue tolerance
Change in peak torque (Nm) during repeated maximal concentric isokinetic contractions at 180°/s, assessed over 30 repetitions. Initial peak torque will be defined as the highest peak torque recorded during the first three repetitions, and final peak torque will be defined as the mean peak torque recorded during the last five repetitions. The decline in torque-generating capacity will be calculated as the absolute and relative decrease from initial to final peak torque.
Time frame: From baseline to 13 weeks
Change in whole-body skeletal muscle volume
Change in whole-body skeletal muscle volume (L) measured by magnetic resonance imaging. Images are analysed by an independent image-analysis service using standardised, automated segmentation.
Time frame: From baseline to 13 weeks
Change in total body fat volume
Change in total body fat volume (L) measured by magnetic resonance imaging. Images are analysed by an independent image-analysis service using standardised, automated segmentation.
Time frame: From baseline to 13 weeks
Change in liver fat fraction
Change in liver fat fraction (%) measured by magnetic resonance imaging. Images are analysed by an independent image-analysis service using standardised, automated segmentation.
Time frame: From baseline to 13 weeks
Change in abdominal subcutaneous adipose tissue volume
Change in abdominal subcutaneous adipose tissue volume (L), measured by magnetic resonace imaging. Images are analysed by an independent image-analysis service using standardised, automated segmentation.
Time frame: From baseline to 13 weeks
Change in visceral adipose tissue volume
Change in visceral adipose tissue volume (L) measured by magnetic resonance imaging. Images are analysed by an independent image-analysis service using standardised, automated segmentation.
Time frame: From baseline to 13 weeks
Change in skeletal muscle fat infiltration
Change in anterior thigh muscle fat infiltration (%), measured by magnetic resonance imaging. Images are analysed by an independent image-analysis service using standardised, automated segmentation, blinded to which leg was trained.
Time frame: From baseline to 13 weeks
Change in body mass
Change in body mass during the intervention (kg).
Time frame: From baseline to 13 weeks
Change in blood pressure
Change in resting systolic and diastolic blood pressure (mmHg).
Time frame: From baseline to 13 weeks
Change in skeletal muscle molecular profile
Changes in molecular markers in skeletal muscle, including global (transcriptomics, proteomics, phosphoproteomics and metabolomics) and targeted gene expression, protein abundance, and specific molecular pathways. The intermediate sample (optional - only collected in participants who consent to the additional visit) is collected between week 4 and week 6 after the first dose.
Time frame: Baseline, 4-6 weeks and 13 weeks
Change in adipose tissue molecular profile
Changes in molecular markers in subcutaneous adipose tissue, including gene expression (transcriptomics), proteins (proteomics \& phosphoproteomics), metabolites (metabolomics), inflammatory markers, and specific molecular pathways. The intermediate sample (optional) is collected between week 4 and week 6 after the first dose.
Time frame: Baseline, 4-6 weeks and 13 weeks
Change in health-related quality of life (RAND-36)
Change in health-related quality of life using RAND-36. Each dimension results in a score from 0 to 100 (higher = better score).
Time frame: From baseline to 13 weeks
Change in health-related quality of life (EQ-5D-5L)
Change in health-related quality of life using EQ-5D-5L. Each dimension results in a score from 1 (no problems) to 5 (extreme problems). The EQ visual analogue scale is rated from 0 (worst health you can imagine) to 100 (best health you can imagine)
Time frame: From baseline to 13 weeks
Change in cardiometabolic blood markers
Change in blood markers including clinically relevant metabolic, inflammatory, endocrine and cardiovascular biomarkers. The intermediate sample is collected between week 4 and week 6 after the first dose. The intermediate sample (optional) is collected between week 4 and week 6 after the first dose.
Time frame: Baseline, 4-6 weeks and 13 weeks
Change in energy intake and nutrient composition
Change in self-reported energy intake (kcal), macronutrient intake, and micronutrient intake, measured by a food frequency questionnaire from baseline to 13 weeks.
Time frame: From baseline to 13 weeks
Change in physical activity
Change in self-reported daily physical activity (minutes per week).
Time frame: From baseline to 13 weeks
Change in mitochondrial content
Change in tissue (skeletal muscle and adipose tissue) mitochondrial content measured by citrate synthase activity (nmol/min/mg protein). The intermediate sample (optional) is collected between week 4 and week 6 after the first dose.
Time frame: Baseline, 4-6 weeks and 13 weeks
Change in immune cell populations
Change in circulating immune cell populations. The intermediate sample is collected between week 4 and week 6 after the first dose. The intermediate sample (optional) is collected between week 4 and week 6 after the first dose.
Time frame: Baseline, 4-6 weeks and 13 weeks
Change in sedentary time
Change in self-reported daily physical inactivity, measured as hours per day.
Time frame: From baseline to 13 weeks.
Change in total blood volume
Change in total blood volume measured by using the carbon monoxide-rebreathing method.
Time frame: From baseline to 13 weeks.
Plan to share: Undecided — De-identified individual participant data may be made available upon reasonable request after publication, depending on ethical approval, participant consent, Swedish and EU data protection regulations, and institutional policies at Karolinska Institutet and Region Stockholm.
No publications or documents are linked to this record.
From the registry record's own update history. This site started tracking changes on Sep 25, 2026; for anything earlier, see the record history on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
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