Obesity: reversible biological adaptation or disease?

Abstract

Obesity is an unfavorable state of health as a result of which come in the initial adaptation, that couldgradually transform into specific disease condition. The aim of the study was to assess the degree ofmiddle-aged men adaptation to obesity in terms of somatic changes, exercise capacity andcardiopulmonary fitness. The study involved 12 obese middle-aged men (OG) - BMI = 34.32 ± 4.11kg/m2. The control group (CG) consisted of 12 non-obese middle-aged men- BMI = 23.72 ± 1.83 kg/m2,with similar body height (BH) to OG. After recording somatic and physiological data at rest,participants were subjected to the bicycle ergometer test (BT) gradually increasing intensity. Duringthe BT aerobic power (AP) was recorded and analyzed along with parameters characterizing theefficiency of the circulatory and respiratory systems at anaerobic threshold (AT) and the maximum load(ML). This study has shown that obese men have a higher body mass (BM), a higher content of fat (BF),an increased lean body mass (FFM) and a higher content of water (TBW) than CG (p <0.001). Absoluteand relatively expressed in relation to the FFM respondents’ values of AP and VO2 were similar in bothgroups and after taking under the consideration the body weight, they were significantly lower in OGthan in the CG. Furthermore, adverse effects have been observed that emerged on some cardiovascularand respiratory variables at rest in case of OG; these effects did not occur during physical exertion.Beyond negative changes occurring obesity in the first stage led to favorable somatic adaptation thatentails an increase of FFM in OG, which gives a positive impact on the capacity of physical work ofobese men and produces a beneficial effect on the resulting compensation impairment in the respiratoryand circulatory systems of these subjects.

Keywords

• obesity
• exercise
• body weight
• exercise capacity
• cardio-respiratory fitness