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Maintenance of improvements in fitness and fatness 1 year after a 3-month lifestyle intervention in overweight men

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 70, pages 1212–1214 (2016)Cite this article

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Abstract

Sustained improvements in cardiovascular fitness and body composition after lifestyle interventions are challenging. The present study investigated whether changes in cardiovascular fitness and body composition were maintained for up to 1 year after similar exercise-induced (T) or diet-induced weight loss (D) or exercise without weight loss (T-iD) in overweight sedentary men. Six and 12 months after the interventions, we measured cardiovascular fitness and body composition. Cardiovascular fitness was higher at both 6- (3.2±1.5 ml O2/kg/min, P=0.053) and 12-month follow-up (3.9±1.4 ml O2/kg/min, P=0.049) compared with pre-intervention in T. Fat mass (−3.0±1.2 kg, P=0.04) and abdominal fat (−3.6±1.5%, P=0.04) were lower within T at 12-month follow-up compared with pre-intervention. This did not occur in D (P>0.13) or T-iD (P>0.14), although body weight was lower in D (−2.5±2.2 kg, P=0.09). This study showed that fitness and fatness were not returned to pre-intervention levels 1 year after a 3-month exercise-induced weight-loss intervention.

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Acknowledgements

Danish National Research Council; the Ministry of Culture, Committee on Sports Research; the Academy of Muscle Biology, Exercise and Health Research (AMBEHR); the Novo Nordisk Foundation; the Danish Diabetes Association; Aase og Ejnar Danielsens Fond; Oda og Hans Svenningsens Fond; Fonden til Lægevidenskabens Fremme; Else og Mogens Wedell-Wedellsborgs Fond, Fonden af 17.12.1981; Beckett-Fonden and Direktør J. Madsen og hustru O. Madsens Fond and Fitness.dk. Salary of Mads Rosenkilde was funded by the University of Copenhagen Excellence Programme for Interdisciplinary Research through the research program ‘Governing Obesity’ (www.go.ku.dk).

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The financial sponsors had no role in designing or conducting of the study, in the collection, analysis or interpretation of data, or in the preparation of the manuscript.

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  1. Department of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

    M Rosenkilde, P Nordby & B Stallknecht

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  1. M Rosenkilde
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  2. P Nordby
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  3. B Stallknecht
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Correspondence to M Rosenkilde.

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Rosenkilde, M., Nordby, P. & Stallknecht, B. Maintenance of improvements in fitness and fatness 1 year after a 3-month lifestyle intervention in overweight men. Eur J Clin Nutr 70, 1212–1214 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2016.64

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