Reductions in Abdominal Adiposity and its Association with Lipoprotein Subfractions

Abstract

0543 PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between changes in abdominal adiposity (AA) with changes in lipid subfractions and particles sizes in overweight adults undergoing 16-months of supervised, verified exercise with an ad libitum diet. METHODS: Subjects (n = 52, age 18–35, BMI ≥ 25) were randomly assigned to non-exercise control (women, n = 12, men, n = 12) or exercise (women, n = 18, men, n = 10) groups. Aerobic exercise progressed to 45 minutes·day−1, 5 days·week−1 over 6 months and was maintained for an additional 10 months. Controls maintained their normal physical activity. AA was measured by computed topography at baseline and 16-months. Lipid subfractions and particles sizes were isolated from fasting blood samples by nuclear magnetic resonance at baseline and 16-months. RESULTS: For men in the control group there was a significant correlation between changes in visceral abdominal fat (VAF) (r = 0.62), subcutaneous abdominal fat (r = 0.80), and total abdominal fat (r = 0.75) with changes in medium very low density lipoprotein with no other significant correlations. Changes in VAF with change in small high density lipoprotein (r = 0.66) was significant for the control women, with no other significant correlations occurring. There were no significant correlations between changes in lipoprotein subfractions and particle sizes with any measure of AA in the exercising men or women. CONCLUSION: We conclude that reductions in AA may not correspond to improvements in lipid subfractions or particles sizes in young adults participating in long-term exercise. Therefore, other factors other than a reduction in AA may contribute to reducing metabolic risk factors in young adults.