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Weight regain, muscle loss follow resistance training, calorie restriction
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Older adults with overweight or obesity who adhered to a short-term resistance training and calorie restriction intervention regained fat mass, but not lean mass, in the 18 months after the intervention, according to recent study findings.
“Our data indicate that despite clinically meaningful weight loss and concurrent favorable shifts in total body and thigh composition in participants who lost > 5% of initial body mass by undergoing [calorie restriction] during [resistance training], these improvements were generally not sustained long term,” Elizabeth A. Chmelo, MS, of the J. Paul Sticht Center on Aging at Wake Forest School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and colleagues wrote. “Indeed, at the 23-month follow-up visit, in spite of modestly reduced total body mass in the [resistance training and calorie restriction] group, total fat mass and thigh fat volumes (including intermuscular fat) were not different from participants who did not lose weight during [resistance training] alone.”
In a pilot study, Chmelo and colleagues analyzed data from 24 adults aged 65 to 79 years with BMI between 27 kg/m² and 34.9 kg/m² who participated in a 5-month, randomized trial designed to compare a resistance training and caloric restriction intervention (RT+CR; n = 13) with resistance training alone (RT; n = 11). All participants underwent DXA and CT measurements at baseline and 5 and 23 months for total body and thigh composition (mean baseline age, 70 years; 12 women; 23 white; mean BMI, 29.9 kg/m²).
Elizabeth A. Chmelo
The RT+CR group lost a mean of 7.1 kg over 5 months (74% fat mass; 26% lean mass; P < .01 for both), whereas the RT group weight remained stable. In the 18 months after intervention, all RT+CR participants regained weight (mean gain, 4.8 kg; P < .01). Body mass did not change during follow-up for the RT group. Researchers observed differential group effects for all DXA and CT body composition measures at 5 months (P < .01 for all); however, by 23 months, group differences between RT+CR and CR persisted only for total body mass (81.6 kg vs. 88.5 kg; P = .03) and lean mass (50.8 kg vs. 54.4 kg; P < .01). Total fat mass and all thigh fat volumes increased for RT+CR participants, whereas thigh muscle volume decreased during follow-up (P < .01).
Decreased total thigh volume, driven by the loss of thigh muscle volume, were the only post-intervention body composition changes observed in the RT group (P < .04 for both).
“These pilot data suggest that fat, rather than muscle, tissue is regained when older adults regain weight after weight loss,” the researchers wrote. “Over time, and/or with repeated bouts of weight cycling, this could exacerbate sarcopenic obesity in older adults.” – by Regina Schaffer
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
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