Abstract
Individuals with abdominal obesity and metabolic syndrome (MetS) have augmented risk of all-cause mortality. Lifestyle interventions are effective to treat MetS, however, there are periods during the year in which exercise programs are discontinued and improper dietary habits reappear (e.g., Christmas holidays). We aimed to analyze if exercise-training during Christmas holidays would avoid body-weight gains and cardiometabolic deterioration in MetS individuals, using a randomized control trial. Thirty-eight men with MetS undergoing exercise training were randomly allocated to either continue (TRAIN group, n = 16) or discontinue (HOLID group, n = 22) training, during the three weeks of Christmas. Anthropometrics (body weight, fat, and waist circumference), fasting blood metabolites (glucose, insulin, triglycerides, and cholesterol concentrations) and exercise maximal fat oxidation (FOMAX) and oxygen uptake (VO2PEAK) were determined before and after Christmas. Both groups were similar at baseline in all parameters (p > 0.05). HOLID group increased body weight (91.3 ± 13.0 to 92.0 ± 13.4 kg, p = 0.004), mean arterial pressure (94.0 ± 10.6 to 97.1 ± 8.9 mmHg, p = 0.026), blood insulin (10.2 ± 3.8 to 12.5 ± 5.4 µIU·mL−1, p = 0.003) and HOMA (3.2 ± 1.3 to 4.1 ± 2.3, p = 0.003). In contrast, TRAIN prevented those disarrangements and reduced total (170.6 ± 30.6 to 161.3 ± 31.3 mg·dL−1, p = 0.026) and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (i.e., LDL-C, 104.8 ± 26.1 to 95.6 ± 21.7 mg·dL−1, p = 0.013). TRAIN also prevented the reductions in exercise FOMAX and VO2PEAK that was observed in the HOLID group (p = 0.002). In conclusion, exercise training during Christmas, prevents body weight gains and the associated cardiovascular (increase in blood pressure and LDL-C) and metabolic (reduced insulin sensitivity) health risks are an optimal non-pharmacological therapy for that period of the year.
Highlights
Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a cluster of cardiovascular and metabolic derangements that increases 2-fold the risk of cardiovascular mortality and 1.5-fold the risk of all-cause mortality [1]
We found 0.67 kg weight gain in the HOLID group, which correlated with increases in waist circumference, which was our proxy of abdominal fat
We reported that HOMA reverts to pre-training levels when exercise ceases by one-month, in MetS individuals [16]
Summary
Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a cluster of cardiovascular and metabolic derangements that increases 2-fold the risk of cardiovascular mortality and 1.5-fold the risk of all-cause mortality [1]. MetS factors include elevated blood pressure, dyslipidemia (raised triglycerides and lowered high-density lipoprotein cholesterol), fasting glucose, and waist circumference, all of which are related to weight gain [2]. A surrogate of intra-abdominal fat accumulation, is one of the most frequent factors of the MetS, with an increasing prevalence over the past decades [3]. Res. Public Health 2020, 17, 4732; doi:10.3390/ijerph17134732 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph
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