Scope

Abdominal obesity is one of the main modifiable risk factors of age-related cardiometabolic disease. Cardiometabolic disease risk and its associated high abdominal fat mass, cholesterol, and glucose concentrations can be reduced by a healthier lifestyle. Hence, the aim is to understand the relation between lifestyle-induced changes in body composition, and specifically abdominal fat, and accompanying changes in circulating metabolic biomarkers.

Methods and results

Data from the Growing Old Together (GOTO) study was used, which is a single arm lifestyle intervention in which 164 older adults (mean age 63 years, BMI 23-35 kg/m2 ) changed their lifestyle during 13 weeks by 12.5% caloric restriction plus 12.5% increase in energy expenditure. It is shown here that levels of circulating metabolic biomarkers, even after adjustment for body mass index, specifically associate with abdominal fat mass. The applied lifestyle intervention mainly reduces abdominal fat mass (-2.6%, SD = 3.0) and this reduction, when adjusted for general weight loss, is highly associated with decreased circulating glycerol concentrations and increased HDL diameter.

Conclusion

The lifestyle-induced reduction of abdominal fat mass is particularly associated, independent of body mass index or general weight loss, with decreased circulating glycerol concentrations and increased HDL diameter.

© 2020 The Authors. Published by WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.