Influence of nutritional intake and exercise on percent body fat

Abstract

Influences of nutritional calorie intake and aerobic exercise training using a bicycle ergometer on percent body fat were evaluated. Five-month training for two-five days per week was performed at intensity 50% VO₂max (maximal oxygen uptake) for 20 minutes per day. Whereas the percent body fat was 22.0% in men and 28.2% in women (borderline obesity, respectively) before the training, it changed to 19.3% in men (normal) and 23.8% in women (normal) after the training. The female subjects who showed the less decrease of percent body fat had taken the more calories than those who showed significant decrease of the percent body fat. The values of diastolic blood pressure, systolic blood pressure, heart rate at rest, fasting plasma glucose, total cholesterol, HDL (high density lipoprotein) cholesterol and triglyceride of plasma were all not different between the pre-and post-training.
These results suggested that decrease rate of percent body fat induced by regular physical exercise training were influenced by nutritional intakes.