Long-term increase of fat mass after a four week intervention with fast food based hyper-alimentation and limitation of physical activity

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>A sedentary lifestyle and increased consumption of energy dense food have become more common in many parts of the world. The aim of this study was to study long term effects on body composition after a four week intervention with fast food based hyper-alimentation and limited physical activity in young normal weight subjects.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Eighteen subjects, mean age 26 (6.6) years, increased their energy intake with in average 70% and physical activity were not to exceed 5000 steps/day. Body composition was measured by Dual energy x-ray (DXA) at baseline, after the intervention and after 12 months. A matched control group was also included. ANOVA and Student's paired and unpaired t-test were used.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>During the intervention body weight increased with 6.4 (2.8) kg and DXA measurements showed increases of both fat free mass and fat mass. Six months after the intervention the subjects had lost most of the weight gain, - 4.7 (3.1) kg. Twelve months after the intervention body weight had increased with 1.5 (2.4) kg compared to baseline (p = 0.018). DXA measurements at 12 months showed unchanged fat free mass compared to baseline but higher fat mass, + 1.4 (1.9) kg (p = 0.01). After 2.5 years the increase of body weight was 3.1 (4.0) kg (p = 0.01) while there was no change in controls compared to baseline, + 0.1(2.5) kg (p = 0.88).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>One year after a short term intervention with increased fast food based hyper-alimentation there was an increase of fat mass but unchanged fat free mass. As the change of fat mass was larger than expected from prospective epidemiological studies and as there was no increase of body weight in controls it raises the issue whether there is a long-term effect to increase fat mass of a short period of hyper-alimentation.</p

Address correspondence to:

Transient increase in HDL cholesterol during weight gain by hyper-alimentation in healthy subject

Original Publication:

Comparison of the subjective sense of high or low metabolism and objectively measured resting metabolic rat

Comparison of the subjective sense of high or low metabolism and objectively measured resting metabolic rate

Abstract Objective. To measure caloric intake, physical activity level and resting metabolic rate in participants having the subjective opinion of either having a high or low metabolic rate. Methods. Recruitment by local advertising of healthy subjects feeling that they have high or low metabolism, i.e. either a tendency to easily stay lean ('high') or to very easily gain weight ('low') also when taking food intake in comparison with physical activity into account. Walking distance was estimated by pedometry, assessment of caloric intake was determined by food registration. Measurement of resting metabolic rate was performed in the fasting state. Results. We recruited 44 participants with a sense of 'high' metabolism and 12 subjects in the contrasting group. Subjects with 'high' metabolism were leaner ('high': 20.4 +/- 2.1 kg/m(2), 'low': 27.8 +/- 7.5 kg/m(2), p &lt; 0.0001) and reported a higher caloric intake than those with 'low' metabolism ('high': 11435 +/- 2420 kJ/24 h, 'low': 8339 +/- 2679 kJ/24 h, p = 0.001). Despite this there was no difference in the measured resting metabolic rate between the two groups ('high': 7230 +/- 1233 kJ/24 h, 'low': 7430 +/- 1422 kJ/24 h, p = 0.6), nor was there any difference in physical activity measured by pedometry. Resting metabolic rate was negatively correlated with age and positively correlated with BMI in multivariate analyses of the total cohort. Conclusion. The sense of having a low or high metabolic rate is not related to actual resting metabolic rate.Original Publication:Andreas Wallhuss, Markus Isik and Fredrik H Nystrom, Comparison of the subjective sense of high or low metabolism and objectively measured resting metabolic rate, 2010, Scandinavian journal of clinical and laboratory investigation, (70), 5, 334-337.http://dx.doi.org/10.3109/00365513.2010.491125Copyright: Informa Healthcarehttp://informahealthcare.com