Nutrition, Exercise and Muscle Metabolism in Obesity

Two thirds of the adult US population is overweight or obese and the prevention and treatment of obesity is a key priority due to the strain on societal health, well-being and economic prosperity. Obesity is associated with insulin resistance characterized by a reduced ability of insulin to stimulate glucose uptake into skeletal muscle and by hyperglycaemia. Obesity and insulin resistance are major risk factors for cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. Weight loss through caloric restriction and increasing physical activity levels are the mainstay of non-surgical/pharmacological treatment for obesity. Weight loss can reduce insulin resistance although sustainable weight loss is difficult to achieve. Physical activity can help with weight maintenance but perhaps surprisingly, carefully controlled longitudinal studies in obese patients indicate aerobic exercise training in the absence of weight loss has no or at best modest impact on peripheral insulin resistance.

One mechanism by which regular aerobic exercise training ensures high peripheral insulin sensitivity in endurance trained individuals is via stimulation of intramyocellular triglyceride turnover and muscle fat oxidation, which maintains low muscle levels of fatty acid metabolites known to interfere with insulin-stimulated muscle glucose uptake (e.g., fatty acyl CoA, diacyglycerols, ceramides). Indirect evidence suggests intramyocellular triglyceride can be utilized as fuel during aerobic exercise in obese individuals, at least in the overnight-fasted state. However, the influence of overnight-fasted vs. fed-state exercise on intramyocellular triglyceride utilization and muscle oxidative adaptation has not been studied in obesity. This is important to study as fed-state exercise, as compared to overnight-fasted exercise, blunts exercise-associated increases in intramyocellular triglyceride utilization, oxidative gene expression, long-term adaptation of muscle oxidative capacity and resistance to high fat diet induced impairments in oral glucose tolerance in lean individuals.

Thus, the presence or timing of recent nutrition with respect to exercise could be a critical factor explaining the inability of aerobic exercise training per se to improve peripheral insulin sensitivity in longitudinal studies in obese populations. Exercising in the overnight-fasted state could optimize metabolic adaptation to training in obese individuals with long-term benefits for reduced insulin resistance and cardio-metabolic disease risk.