ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Normal weight obesity (NWO) syndrome has been characterized in subjects with normal Body Mass Index (BMI) and high body fat mass percentage (BF%>30 for women) being a risk factor for cardiometabolic dysregulation and cardiovascular mortality. This study evaluated whether circuit resistance training (CRT) improves body composition, heart size and function, cardiometabolic parameters, and cardiorespiratory, cardiovascular and skeletal muscle fitness in women with NWO. METHODS: Data are means (95% Confidence Interval). Twenty-three women participated: 10 NWO-CRT (baseline: BMI=22.4 [21.4-23.3] kg/m2; BF%=44.5 [41.0-48.0]%) performed CRT; and 13 untrained NWO-control (baseline: BMI=21.7 [20.8-22.7] kg/m2; BF%=37.8 [34.6-41.1]%). At baseline and after 10 weeks were performed/measured dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry, echocardiography, blood tests, arterial pressure, exercise testing, and total-overload-by-training-session (TOL). RESULTS: At baseline, the NWO-CRT exhibited larger BF (27.28 [23.9-30.6] kg) than NWO-control (22.41 [19.5-25.3] kg) (P=0.0227). After training, NWO-CRT: reduced 8 kg of BF (P=0.000002); became BF% lower than NWO-control (33.1 [30.1-36.0] <37.0 [34.3-39.6]%, P=0.0423), with 30% of NWO-CRT subjects becoming without-obesity; reduced 3 kg in trunk fat mass (P=0.000005); showed fasting glucose (72.8 [69.4-76.2] mg/dL) smaller than NWO-control (81.7 [78.6-84.8] mg/dL) (P=0.004); increased TOL (5087.5 [4142.5-6032.5] to 6963.3 [6226.4-7700.2] rep.kg, P=0.0004); increased load at VO2peak (122.5 [106.8-138.2] to 137.5 [118.18-156.82] W, P=0.0051); reduced double product/load at VO2peak ratio (277.4 [222.1-332.8] to 237.7 [194.2-281.2] mmHg.bpm/W, P=0.0015); and increased left ventricular mass/body surface area ratio (84.29 [78.98-89.6] to 90.29 [81.45-99.12] g/m2, P=0.0215). CONCLUSIONS: CRT reduced BF% and generated cardiometabolic, cardiac, skeletal muscle and cardiovascular benefits, being a useful strategy to combat the normal weight obesity syndrome in women.
