Role of physical activity and cardiorespiratory fitness in metabolically healthy obesity: a narrative review

Obesity has been associated with a multitude of metabolic disorders, often clustering with risk factors of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes mellitus, hypertension, dyslipidaemia. Overall, obesity is a worldwide, growing health concern. However, a subgroup of obese individuals with a low burden of metabolic abnormalities have been identified and described as metabolically healthy obese (MHO). Whether the MHO phenotype is protective against obesity-related metabolic disorders in the long-term is presently unclear, and current research examining the potential transition has yielded inconsistent results. In this current narrative review, we aim to provide insights on the role of physical activity (PA) and cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) in MHO. Lifestyle factors such as PA and CRF may influence the MHO phenotype. Limited studies have characterised energy expenditure and CRF in MHO and metabolically unhealthy obese. However, higher levels of PA, less sedentary behaviour and higher CRF have been observed in MHO individuals. Considering the multiple benefits of PA, it is high time to advocate this lifestyle change beyond its influence on energy balance in a weight loss programme to improve cardiovascular and metabolic risk factors irrespective of body weight and fat mass changes. Improved CRF via increased PA, especially exercise participation, while avoiding weight gain is not only a realistic goal, but should be the primary intervention for MHO populations to prevent the transition to an abnormal metabolic state

Cardiovascular Risk Factors and their Responses to a 10 Weeks Training Program in Young Qatari Adults

Rapid development in Qatar in recent years has led to numerous changes, particularly the increased prevalence of lifestyle related health risks, with almost 50% obesity rates amongst Qataris of all ages. We investigated the effects of a ten-week exercise training program aimed at young Qatari male adults, on a number of cardiovascular risk (CVD) factors. With institutional approval, we screened 89 Qatari young adult male volunteers from Qatar University for CVR factors of hypertension indicated by systolic (SBP) and diastolic (DBP) blood pressure, overweight and obesity indicated by body fat percentage (%BF), body weight (BW) and body mass index (BMI). 20 participants (23% of total number) were identified with one or more risk factors (hypertension and overweight), and were enrolled to follow a ten-week recreational-type exercise training program. The training involved 30-45 min of either walking, cycling, jogging and swimming at an exercise intensity corresponding to 50-85% of each participant’s maximum heart rate, on 3-5 times/week. The intervention significantly reduced BW (93.4±14.1 vs. 86.7±14.5, p<0.05), BMI (31.0±3.6 vs. 28.7±3.9, p<0.05) and BF% (31.2±9.0 vs. 21.2±4.4, p<0.05). Furthermore, there was a significant reduction in diastolic blood pressure (83.4±5.3 vs. 76.0±9.2 mmHg, p<0.05), and a non-significant reduction in systolic blood pressure (133.8±10.7 vs. 130.5±9.1 mmHg, p = 0.516). This recreational-type exercise intervention was effective in substantially reducing the CVD indices. However, the alarmingly high prevalence of sedentary-related CVD risks amongst Qatari young adult males, especially those related to obesity, overweight and hypertension necessitate further public health interventions in this age-group as an early prevention strategy.This study was made possible by a Qatar Foundation’s Qatar National Research Fund grant award (UREP 12-048-3-009)

The effectiveness of a ten-week exercise intervention to reduce cardiovascular risk factors amongst young male Qatari adults

Rapid development in Qatar in the recent years has led to numerous changes, particularly the increased prevalence of lifestyle related health risks, with almost 50% obesity rates amongst Qataris of all ages. We investigated the effects of a tenweek exercise training program aimed at young Qatari male adults, on a number of cardiovascular risk factors (CVR). With institutional approval, we screened 89 Qatari young adult male volunteers from Qatar University for CVR factors of hypertension indicated by systolic (SBP) and diastolic (DBP) blood pressure, overweight and obesity indicated by body fat percentage (%BF), body weight (BW) and body mass index (BMI). 20 participants (23% of total number) were identified with one or more risk factors (hypertension and overweight), and were enrolled to follow a ten-week recreational-type exercise training program. The training involved 30-40 min of either walking, cycling, jogging and swimming at an exercise intensity corresponding to 50-85% of each participant’s maximum heart rate, on 3-5 times/week. The intervention significantly reduced BW (93.4±14.1 vs. 86.7±14.5, p<0.05), BMI (31.0±3.6 vs. 28.8±3.9, p<0.05) and BF% (31.2±9.0 vs. 21.2±4.4, p<0.05). Furthermore, there was a significant reduction in diastolic blood pressure (83.4±5.3 vs. 76.0±9.2 mmHg, p<0.05), and a non-significant reduction in (133.8±10.7 vs. 130.5±9.1 mmHg, p=0.516). This recreational-type exercise intervention was effective in substantially reducing the CVR indices. However, the alarmingly high prevalence of sedentary-related CVR amongst Qatari young adult males, especially those related to obesity, overweight and hypertension necessitate further public health interventions in this agegroup as an early prevention strategy

12 hetes edzésprogram hatékonyságának vizsgálata a menopauza éveiben jelentkező tünetek enyhítésére = The effectiveness of a 12-week exercise program to alleviate symptoms in menopausal years

Menopauza idején a nőknek számos negatív változással kell szembenézniük. A koruknak megfelelő, jól felépített, hetente több alkalommal végzet edzések késleltethetik, enyhíthetik ezeket a tüneteket és sokat tehetnek a csontritkulás, izomvesztés- és az elhízás ellen, de a mentális jólétre is pozitívan hathat. Vizsgálatunknak kettős célja volt speciálisan erre a korosztályra kialakított individualizált mozgásprogram hatékonyságának vizsgálata élettani és pszichológiai szempontból, valamint felmérni a programban tartás lehetőségét és a folytatás iránt igényt. A vizsgálatok során 19 fő adatait értékeltük. Az edzések jelenlét és online módon tartottuk. Szignifikánsan jobb értékeket látunk a mozgásprogram végén az összes mért fittségi mutatóban (hajlékonyság, kézi szorítóerő, 2 perces lépés teszt), valamint az önértékelési kérdésekre adott válaszok 50 %-nál. A résztvevők elégedettsége és a programban elért eredmények is alátámasztják, hogy szükség van a menopauza idején a rendszeres mozgásra. Érdemes lenne ezt a mozgásprogramot szélesebb körben bemutatni és elérhetővé tenni a menopauza korba érő nők részére. = During menopause, women are facing several negatve changes. An age-appropriate, well-structured exercises program can delay and alleviate these symptoms and do a lot against osteoporosis, muscle loss and obesity, but can also have a positve efect on mental well-being. The dual purpose of our study was to investgate the physiological and psychological efects of the individualized exercise program specially designed for this age group, as well as to assess the drop-out rate and the motvaton of the partcipants’ to contnue the program. During the tests, we evaluated the data of 19 partcipants. The training sessions were held face-to face and online. Signifcantly beter values found at the end of the exercise program in all measured ftness indicators (fexibility, handgrip strength, 2-minute step test), as well as the answers to self-assessment questons at 50%. The satsfacton of the participants and our results support the need for regular physical exercise during menopause. It would be worthwhile to present similar exercise program more widely, and make it available to menopausal women. Keywords: menopause, exercise program, fitness, self-assessmen

Analysis of the relationship between physical self-concept and body composition

Introduction: Body image is a psychological construct which refers to self-concept including self-image and feelings an individual perceives regarding his or her body. Several studies have examined how women subjectively perceive their bodies in Western cultures compared to objective measures. However, limited studies have examined this relationship among women in the Gulf region (e.g., Qatar) in which Islamic traditional clothing (i.e., Abaya) is typically adopted and possible differences in the judgment of a healthy body shape might be found. The purpose of this study was to see whether there is a connection between the objective body composition measures [i.e., body weight (BW), body height (BH), body mass index (BMI)] and the subjective measures of physical self-description. We expect to find a tendency among females in this study to estimate a thinner body image compared to their current/measured one. Methods: 97 female volunteers (18-26 years) were recruited from Qatar University. We measured their body composition (i.e., BW, BH and BMI). We used the short version of the Physical Self-Description Questionnaire (PSDQ), a multidimensional physical self-concept instrument with 11 original subscales including: body fat, health, appearance, global physical self-concept. The collected data for all variables were analyzed using Statistica software (v.12, DELL) for correlations using Pearson’s coefficients. Results: Based on the BMI results, 25.7% of the participants were classified as overweight or obese (12.3% and 13.4%, respectively). Results indicated a significant negative moderate correlation between the global physical self-concept on one side and BMI (r=-0.27) and BW (r=-2.0) on the other. Furthermore, the perceived body fat showed significant negative correlation with BMI (r=-0.57) and with BW (r=-0.52). The inter-correlation within the subscales showed that the perceived body fat was significantly correlated with appearance (r=0.25), health (r=0.16) and global physical score (r=0.34). Conclusion: Our results indicated a clear and logic relationship between perceived global physical self-concept scores and participants` body composition (i.e., negative correlation). However, an interesting result in line with our hypothesis and concerning the way participants perceived their own body fat indicates a negatively correlation with BMI and BW. In the studied population, a possible interpretation could be done based on the positive link revealed between perceived body fat, perceived appearance, perceived health and global physical score. Indeed, this could indicate that the ideal perceived body might be different and higher than norms presented in the World Health Organization classification. To get further insights on the nature of these relationships, we have started new investigations on the relationship between the other subscales of physical self-description and a comprehensive physical fitness test (ALPHA-FIT Test, UK).This publication was made possible by UREP grant #17-044-3-011 from the Qatar national research fund (a member of Qatar foundation). The statements made herein are solely the responsibility of the authors

Physical fitness and physical self-concept of male and female young adults in Qatar

Background Physical inactivity is high within the Qatari population, particularly within females, and school-based environments, contributing to increased morbidity and mortality. School-based physical activity (PA) outcomes may be mediated by physical self-concept. Low physical self-concept may negatively impact PA engagement, compromising childhood and adolescent physical fitness, which may translate into adulthood. Normative physical fitness data for the Qatari population is unavailable. Stratifying normative physical fitness appears prudent, to not only allow comparisons to be made worldwide, but enable informed decisions for public health policy and future interventions in the Qatari population.Scopu

Characteristics of preferred walking patterns in young Qatari adults

Walking is the most natural and important activity of daily living as it refers to the primary type of terrestrial human locomotion. Analyses of gait patterns typically examine the speed and manner in which people prefer to walk. Even though humans can walk at speeds ranging from near 0 km/h to 9 km/h, they typically only use a very limited range of speeds around 4.5 km/h in their daily life (Bohannon & Andrews, 2011). The preferred walking speed (PWS) is used in clinical settings as an indicator of a person’s mobility. For example, elderly people, or those suffering from osteoarthritis prefer to walk at slower speeds. Therefore, improving their PWS is considered as a significant clinical goal. Many studies on gait analysis tried to identify the basic parameters of normal unconstrained gait in different populations. Despite the fundamental common shared characteristics, walking patterns may vary from a person to another according to several factors such as age, gender, physical characteristics, etc. In a study examining the “pace” of random pedestrians in 31 cities around the world, differences in the walking speed were found to be linked to parameters such as climate, economic variables, size of population and cities (Levine & Norenzayan, 1999). More recently, a study has put forward the impact of the cultural background on walking norms by revealing several significant differences in basic gait parameters between young Kuwaiti and Swedish adults (Al-Obaidi et al., 2003). Specifically, the authors presented the first evidence concerning walking patterns in a population from the Gulf region and proposed an interpretation to the found differences that is linked to traditional clothing and foot wear. This reveals the need for a specific normative database targeting healthy young Qataris. Creating such databases for Qatar is desirable for rehabilitation purposes for people with impaired walking patterns (e.g., elderly fallers, people suffering from stroke consequences, hemiplegia, Parkinson disease, etc). For instance, the aim of this study is to evaluate the preferred walking speed and manners in which young male and female Qatari adults walk as compared to non-Qatari participants with similar physical characteristics. To characterize walking patterns we used spatiotemporal kinematic indicators such as stride length, stride frequency and support phase duration. The associated physiological cost and perceived exertion of walking at a preferred pace will also be examined to test for possible differences. We expect to see differences between the preferred walking patterns of Qatari and non-Qatari participants as proposed by Al-Obaidi and collaborators (2003)

Age-Related Differences of the Athlete`s Heart

Purposes: Analyzing at which age exercise training induces characteristic modifications of heart and which of the characteristics of the athlete’s heart develop in the different ages? Methods: A systematic literature review including 188 publications. Results: In children age (55 years) physically active subjects also displayed significantly higher E/A quotients (1.104 ± 0.093) than passive persons (0.917 ± 0.104), p = 0.004. According to the Tissue Doppler Imagining (TDI) the mitral lateral annulus seems to be the most sensitive region to detect difference in the E’/A’ quotient. At the competitive age difference between athletes and non-athletes was significant (3.21 ± 0.64 vs. 2.32 ± 0.55, p = 0.0265) similarly to the transmitral E/A (1.97 ± 0.37 vs. 1.73 ± 0.31, p = 0.0228, < 0.05). Conclusion: Different characteristics of the athlete’s heart are manifested unequally during the lifetime: LV hypertrophy develops at the young age; differences reach the maximum in young adults (36-55 years) and are less marked in older subjects. Coronary capillary network seems to develop mostly in younger athletes, while a difference in diastolic function seems to be more manifest in the competitive age but also appear in older subjects