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Metabolic and muscular factors limiting aerobic exercise in obese subjects

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Abstract

Purpose

The aim of the present study was to understand the role of central (cardiovascular O2 delivery) and peripheral factors (muscle level) in limiting the maximal aerobic performance in obese (OB) subjects.

Methods

Fifteen OB (mean age ± SD 25 ± 7 years; BMI 43 ± 7 kg/m2) and 13 lean sedentary subjects (CTRL, age 27 ± 7 years; BMI 22 ± 3 kg/m2) participated in this study. Oxygen uptake (VO2), hearth rate (HR) and cardiac output (CO) were measured during cycle ergometer (CE) and knee extension (KE) incremental tests. Maximal voluntary contractions (MVCs) of knee extensor muscles were performed before and immediately after the two tests.

Results

VO2peak, HR peak and CO peak were significantly higher in CE than KE (+ 126%, + 33% and + 46%, respectively, p < 0.001), both in OB and CTRL subjects, without differences between the two subgroups. Maximal work rate was lower in OB than CTRL (191 ± 38 vs 226 ± 39 W, p < 0.05) in CE, while it was similar between the two subgroups in KE. Although CE and KE determined a reduction of MVC in both subgroups, MVC resulted less decreased after CE than KE exercises (− 14 vs − 32%, p < 0.001) in OB, while MVC decrements were similar after the two exercises in CTRL (− 26% vs − 30%, p > 0.05, for CE and KE, respectively).

Conclusions

The lower muscle fatigue observed in OB after CE compared to KE test suggests that central factors could be the most important limiting factor during cycling in OB.

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Abbreviations

a − vO2 diff:

Arteriovenous oxygen difference

BM:

Body mass

BMI:

Body mass index

CE:

Cycle ergometer

CTRL:

Control group

CO:

Cardiac output

ΔMVC:

Maximal voluntary contraction changes in percentage

FM:

Fat mass

FFM:

Fat-free mass

HR:

Heart rate

KE:

Knee extension exercise

MVC:

Maximal voluntary contractions of the knee extensor muscles

MVC_end:

MVC immediately after the end of incremental exercise

OB:

Obese

Tlim:

Time to exhaustion

VCO2 :

CO2 output

VO2 :

Pulmonary O2 uptake

VolTM :

MUSCLE thigh volume

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the patients and control subjects who agreed to participate in the study. The study was supported by Progetti di Ricerca Corrente, Istituto Auxologico Italiano (Milan); and by Fondazione Pittini (Italy).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medicine, University of Udine, P.le Kolbe 4, 33100, Udine, Italy

    Filippo Vaccari, Mirco Floreani & Stefano Lazzer

  2. School of Sport Sciences, University of Udine, Udine, Italy

    Filippo Vaccari, Mirco Floreani & Stefano Lazzer

  3. Experimental Laboratory for Auxo-Endocrinological Research, Istituto Auxologico Italiano, IRCCS, Piancavallo (VB), Italy

    Gabriella Tringali, Roberta De Micheli & Alessandro Sartorio

Authors
  1. Filippo Vaccari
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  2. Mirco Floreani
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  3. Gabriella Tringali
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  4. Roberta De Micheli
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  5. Alessandro Sartorio
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  6. Stefano Lazzer
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Contributions

All authors conceived and designed research. FV, MF, GT and RDM conducted experiments. FV and MF analyzed data. FV wrote the manuscript with the help of MF. SL and AS revised the manuscript. All authors read and approved the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Filippo Vaccari.

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Communicated by Jean-René Lacour.

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Vaccari, F., Floreani, M., Tringali, G. et al. Metabolic and muscular factors limiting aerobic exercise in obese subjects. Eur J Appl Physiol 119, 1779–1788 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-019-04167-w

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