Influence of diet and exercise on skeletal muscle, subcutaneous and
visceral adipose tissue distribution in men.
Ross, Robert, John Rissanen, Heather Pedwell, Jennifer Clifford, Peter
Shragge.
School of Physical and Health Education, Queen's University,
Department of Radiology, Kingston General Hospital
APStracts 3:0389A, 1996.
The effects of diet alone (DO) and diet combined with either aerobic
(DA) or resistance (DR) exercise on subcutaneous adipose tissue
(SAT), visceral adipose tissue (VAT), lean (LT) and skeletal muscle
(SM) tissue were evaluated in 33 obese men (DO, N=11 ; DA, N=11 ; DR,
N=11). All tissues were measured using a whole body, multislice
magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) model. Within each group,
significant reductions were observed for body weight, SAT and VAT
(p<0.05). The reductions in body weight (10%), SAT (25%) and VAT
volume (35%) were not different between groups (p>0.05). For all
treatments the relative reduction in VAT was greater than SAT
(p<0.05). For the DA and DR groups only, the reduction in
abdominal SAT (27%) was greater (p<0.05) than that observed for
the gluteal-femoral region (20%). Conversely, the reduction in VAT
was uniform throughout the abdomen regardless of treatment
(p>0.05). MRI-LT and -SM decreased in both the upper and lower
body regions for the DO group alone (p<0.05). Peak VO2 (L) was
significantly improved (14%) in the DA group as was muscular strength
(20%) in the DR group (p<0.01). These findings indicate that the
combination of diet and either aerobic or resistance exercise results
in a greater preservation of MRI-SM, mobilization of SAT from the
abdominal region, by comparison to the gluteal-femoral region, and
improved functional capacity when compared to diet alone in obese
men.
Received 8 March 1996; accepted in final form 3 July 1996.
APS Manuscript Number A245-6.
Article publication pending Journal of Applied Physiology.
ISSN 1080-4757 Copyright 1996 The American Physiological Society.
Published in APStracts on 29 August 1996