BACKGROUND Resisted and aerobic exercises are recommended to reduce weight and improve health, but which exercise modality offers the best results is still unclear. OBJECTIVE The aims of this study were to compare circuit weight training (CWT) with jogging (JOGG) on multiple cardiovascular disease (CVD), metabolic risk factors and fitness of overweight and obese women (body composition, lipid profile, uric acid, glucose, metabolic equivalent (MET), heart rate, blood pressure, flexibility, resting energy expenditure (REE) and nitrogen balance (NB)). METHODS Fifty women were randomly divided in two groups, but only 26 finished it: CWT (n=14; 36+/-12 years old; body mass index, BMI=32+/-7 kg/m(2)) and JOGG (n=12; 37+/-9; BMI=29+/-2). The first month of training consisted of 60 min x 03 days/week and the second month of training consisted of 04 days/week for both protocols and a dietary reeducation. RESULTS Both groups reduced total body mass, fat body mass, BMI, plasma uric acid and increase in MET (p<0.05); there was no change in lean body mass, REE and resting heart rate. CWT reduced total cholesterol, plasma triglycerides, NB and increased flexibility; JOGG reduced waist/hip ratio, glucose, systolic blood pressure, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and increased the total cholesterol/high-density lipoprotein cholesterol ratio (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS Both protocols improved CVD and metabolic risk factors. The CWT presented favorable changes regarding lipid profile and flexibility; JOGG on glucose, waist/hip ratio and blood pressure. These results suggest that resisted exercise combined with aerobics should be considered for obese people. Nevertheless, regarding some basal differences between the groups , it was not possible to conclude that changes were due to exercise type or intra-group variability.