Maintenance of improvements in fitness and fatness 1 year after a 3-month lifestyle intervention in overweight men

• Published in: European journal of clinical nutrition Vol. 70; no. 10; pp. 1212 - 1214
• Main Authors: Rosenkilde, M, Nordby, P, Stallknecht, B
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 01-10-2016; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 692/499; 692/53; Adult; Body Composition; Body fat; Body weight; Body weight loss; Cardiovascular Diseases - physiopathology; Cardiovascular Diseases - prevention & control; Clinical Nutrition; Diet, Reducing; Epidemiology; Exercise; Exercise Therapy; Health aspects; Health behavior; Humans; Internal Medicine; Intervention; Male; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Mens health; Metabolic Diseases; Methods; Obesity, Morbid - drug therapy; Obesity, Morbid - physiopathology; Obesity, Morbid - therapy; Overweight; Overweight persons; Oxygen Consumption; Physical fitness; Physiological aspects; Public Health; short-communication; Treatment Outcome; Weight control; Weight loss; Weight loss maintenance; Young Adult
• ISSN: 0954-3007; 1476-5640
• DOI: 10.1038/ejcn.2016.64

Sustained improvements in cardiovascular fitness and body composition after lifestyle interventions are challenging. The present study investigated whether changes in cardiovascular fitness and body composition were maintained for up to 1 year after similar exercise-induced (T) or diet-induced weight loss (D) or exercise without weight loss (T-iD) in overweight sedentary men. Six and 12 months after the interventions, we measured cardiovascular fitness and body composition. Cardiovascular fitness was higher at both 6- (3.2±1.5 ml O
2
/kg/min,
P
=0.053) and 12-month follow-up (3.9±1.4 ml O
2
/kg/min,
P
=0.049) compared with pre-intervention in T. Fat mass (−3.0±1.2 kg,
P
=0.04) and abdominal fat (−3.6±1.5%,
P
=0.04) were lower within T at 12-month follow-up compared with pre-intervention. This did not occur in D (
P
>0.13) or T-iD (
P
>0.14), although body weight was lower in D (−2.5±2.2 kg,
P
=0.09). This study showed that fitness and fatness were not returned to pre-intervention levels 1 year after a 3-month exercise-induced weight-loss intervention.