Abstract
Background: We assessed the effect of equivalent weight loss with or without exercise on (intra-) abdominal fat in postmenopausal women in the SHAPE-2 study. Methods: The SHAPE-2 study is a three-armed randomised controlled trial conducted in 2012-2013 in the Netherlands. Postmenopausal overweight women were randomized to a diet (n = 97), exercise plus diet (n = 98) or control group (n = 48). Both intervention groups aimed for equivalent weight loss (6-7%) following a calorie-restricted diet (diet group) or a partly supervised intensive exercise programme (4 h per week) combined with a small caloric restriction (exercise plus diet group). Outcomes after 16 weeks are amount and distribution of abdominal fat, measured by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with the use of the three-point IDEAL Dixon method. Results: The diet and exercise plus diet group lost 6.1 and 6.9% body weight, respectively. Compared to controls, subcutaneous and intra-abdominal fat reduced significantly with both diet (- 12.5% and - 12.0%) and exercise plus diet (- 16.0% and - 14.6%). Direct comparison between both interventions revealed that the reduction in subcutaneous fat was statistically significantly larger in the group that combined exercise with diet: an additional 10.6 cm 2 (95%CI -18.7; - 2.4) was lost compared to the diet-only group. Intra-abdominal fat loss was not significantly larger in the exercise plus diet group (- 3.8 cm 2 , 95%CI -9.0; 1.3). Conclusions: We conclude that weight loss of 6-7% with diet or with exercise plus diet reduced both subcutaneous and intra-abdominal fat. Only subcutaneous fat statistically significantly reduced to a larger extent when exercise is combined with a small caloric restriction. Trial register: NCT01511276 (clinicaltrials.gov), prospectively registered.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 174 |
Pages (from-to) | 1-9 |
Number of pages | 9 |
Journal | BMC Public Health |
Volume | 19 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 11 Feb 2019 |
Funding
This work was supported by the Dutch Cancer Society [KWF: UU 2010–4843] and the Dutch Pink Ribbon Foundation [PR110032, PR110039]. The support from the sponsors was unconditional, and the data collection, design, management, analysis, interpretation and reporting were performed without their interference. The role of the sponsors was limited to approving the scientific proposal of the study, covering salary costs of study personnel, costs for the data collection and costs for biochemical analyses.
Funders | Funder number |
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Dutch Cancer Society | |
Pink Ribbon Foundation | PR110032, PR110039 |
KWF Kankerbestrijding | UU 2010–4843 |
Keywords
- Exercise
- Intra-abdominal fat
- Subcutaneous fat
- Weight loss