Effect of diet with or without exercise on abdominal fat in postmenopausal women - a randomised trial.
van Gemert, Willemijn A Peeters, Petra H May, Anne M Doornbos, Adriaan J H Elias, Sjoerd G van der Palen, Job Veldhuis, Wouter Stapper, Maaike Schuit, Jantine A Monninkhof, Evelyn M
van Gemert, Willemijn A
Peeters, Petra H
May, Anne M
Doornbos, Adriaan J H
Elias, Sjoerd G
van der Palen, Job
Veldhuis, Wouter
Stapper, Maaike
Schuit, Jantine A
Monninkhof, Evelyn M
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Series / Report no.
Open Access
Type
Article
Language
en
Date of publication
2019-02-11
Year of publication
Research Projects
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Journal Issue
Title
Effect of diet with or without exercise on abdominal fat in postmenopausal women - a randomised trial.
Translated Title
Published in
BMC Public Health 2019; 19(1):174
Abstract
We assessed the effect of equivalent weight loss with or without exercise on (intra-) abdominal fat in postmenopausal women in the SHAPE-2 study. 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. 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 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.