Potential Role Of Baseline Visceral Fat On Exercise Response In Young Adults With Overweight/obesity

Visceral fat is associated with cardiometabolic dysregulation, which has been a major target for diabetes prevention programs. It is essential to consider interindividual differences to cardiometabolic profile changes following exercise to identify individuals who can meet exercise goals. As such, whether baseline visceral fat area (VFA) can differentiate responders vs non-responders to exercise intervention is of interest. PURPOSE: To examine whether baseline VFA influences cardiometabolic response to short-term high-intensity interval training (HIIT) in young adults with overweight/obesity. METHODS: Ten young adults with overweight/obesity (age 23.2 ± 4.5 yrs; BMI 29.3 ± 3.3 kg/m2; 8 M/2F) completed a 2-week running-based HIIT program (three 20 minutes sessions/week at 90% of maximal baseline distance with a 1:5 work to rest ratio. After an overnight-fast, cardiometabolic characteristics were measured before and after the 2-week HIIT program. Body composition, including VFA, was measured by bioelectrical impedance analysis. Lipids and glucose were assessed from a finger stick blood draw. Brachial blood pressure was measured using an oscillometric device. Participants were divided into VFA-high (n = 6, 144.5 ± 9.1 cm2) and VFA-low groups (n = 4, 72.8 ± 8.5 cm2) with a cut-off of 100 cm2. Independent-sample t-tests examined differences in cardiometabolic characteristics between VFA-low and VFA-high groups at baseline and post-HIIT. Paired t-tests determined differences in cardiometabolic parameters before and after HIIT. RESULTS: At baseline, VFA-high vs VFA-low group had higher fat mass (31.3 ± 3.5 vs 17.9 ± 1.5 kg, p = 0.01) and %body fat (31.3 ± 3.5 vs 17.9 ± 1.5 %, p = 0.01), with no differences in other baseline cardiometabolic parameters. After HIIT intervention, LDL (127.5 ± 9.1 vs 117.2 ± 8.8 mg/dL, p = 0.03) and mean arterial pressure (MAP; 85.0 ± 1.8 vs 81.0 ± 1.8 mmHg, p = 0.01) were reduced in the VFA-high group. There was a significant change in delta (post-baseline) MAP in VFA-high vs VFA-low group (-4.0 ± 0.7 vs -0.7 ± 0.7 mmHg, p = 0.02). There were no other significant changes in cardiometabolic markers between the groups after HIIT. CONCLUSION: Baseline VFA variation can influence an individual’s response to short-term HIIT as seen by greater improvements in LDL and MAP in the VFA-high vs VFA-low group.