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Effects of acute exercise on postprandial triglyceride response after a high-fat meal in overweight black and white adolescents

International Journal of Obesity volume 37, pages 966–971 (2013)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Objective:

We examined the effects of acute exercise on postprandial triglyceride (TG) metabolism following a high-fat meal in overweight black vs white adolescents.

Design and subjects:

Twenty-one black and 17 white adolescents (12–18 yrs, body mass index ⩾85th percentile) were evaluated twice, during control versus exercise trials, 1–4 weeks apart, in a counterbalanced randomized design. In the control trial, participants performed no exercise on day 1. In the exercise trial, participants performed a single bout of 60-min exercise (50% VO2 peak) on a cycle ergometer on day 1. On day 2 of both trials, participants consumed a high-fat breakfast (70% calories from fat) and blood was sampled for TG concentration in the fasted state and for 6 h postprandially.

Results:

There was a significant main effect of condition on postprandial peak TG concentration (P=0.01) and TG area under the curve (AUC) (P=0.003), suggesting that independent of race, peak TG and TG-AUC was lower in the exercise trial vs control trial. Including Tanner stage, gender, total fat (kg) and visceral adipose tissue (VAT) as independent variables, stepwise multiple regression analyses revealed that in whites, VAT was the strongest (P<0.05) predictor of postprandial TG-AUC, explaining 56 and 25% of the variances in TG-AUC in the control and exercise trials, respectively. In blacks, VAT was not associated with postprandial TG-AUC, independent of trial.

Conclusion:

A single bout of aerobic exercise preceding a high-fat meal is beneficial to reduce postprandial TG concentrations in overweight white adolescents to a greater extent than black adolescents, particularly those with increased visceral adiposity.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the Thrasher Research Fund (NR-0023), the Department of Defense (FA7014-09-2-0008) and the National Institutes of Health (K24 HD/DK01357 and UL1 RR024153). The authors express their gratitude to the study participants and their parents, to Nancy Guerra, Robert Robertson, PhD, Resa Stauffer and the PCTRC nursing staff for their support.

Author Contributions

Lee, Burns and Arslanian obtained funding, collected and analyzed data and wrote the manuscript. White collected and analyzed data. Kuk provided statistical analyses and critical revision of the manuscript. Lee is the guarantor of this work, had full access to all the data and takes full responsibility for the integrity of data and the accuracy of data analysis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Weight Management and Wellness, Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    S Lee & S Arslanian

  2. Physical Education and Sports Science Academic Group, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore

    S F Burns

  3. Department of Health and Physical Activity, School of Education, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    D White

  4. School of Kinesiology and Health Science, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

    J L Kuk

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  1. S Lee
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Correspondence to S Lee.

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Lee, S., Burns, S., White, D. et al. Effects of acute exercise on postprandial triglyceride response after a high-fat meal in overweight black and white adolescents. Int J Obes 37, 966–971 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/ijo.2013.29

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