Meta-analysis Of The Effect Of Exercise Training Versus Diet On Visceral Adipose Tissue And Weight Loss

Abstract

Lifestyle interventions like aerobic exercise training (“training”) and caloric restriction (“diet”) are frequently prescribed for weight-management in obesity, with studies suggesting a larger effect of diet on weight loss. Importantly, visceral adiposity (VAT) is a stronger and more important predictor for all-cause morbidity and mortality than body weight. Currently, it is not known which of these 2 interventions have superior effects on VAT. PURPOSE: With the use of a meta-analysis, we compared the impact of training versus diet on VAT in overweight/obese humans. Secondly, we examined the correlation between changes in body weight and VAT after both, training and diet. METHODS: Pubmed, Cochrane, Web of Science and Embase were systematically searched for eligible studies. Included studies were clinical or randomized controlled trials in which training and/or diet was implemented for >4 weeks (112 studies, n=4,815). RESULTS: Training and diet caused VAT loss (standard mean difference: 95%CI -0.56/-0.39 and 95%CI-0.71/-0.55, respectively, both P DISCUSSION: Both exercise training and diet reduce VAT. Despite a larger effect of diet on body weight loss, training tends to have superior effects in reducing VAT. Finally, weight loss does not necessarily reflect loss in VAT after lifestyle interventions and may lead to spurious conclusions when evaluating benefits of lifestyle-interventions on body composition.