Effect of aerobic exercise training and dietary administration on visceral fat mass

The objective of the present study was to investigate the effect of dietary administration and aerobic exercise on visceral fat mass and subcutaneous fat distributions. Nineteen moderate obese young women participated and carried out aerobic exercise training for 13 weeks. During the training period, participants controlled their diet for themselves and kept lower energy intake than usual. Visceral fat mass (VFM) was determined as the difference between total fat mass and subcutaneous fat mass (SFM), evaluated by hydrodensitometrically and by B-mode ultrasound and body surface area, respectively. A highly significant correlation between VFM and the area occupied by visceral fat in the cross-sectional MR image of abdomen demonstrated the reliability of VFM determination. After the training, body mass decreased by 1.4 kg, while lean body mass increased by 0.9 kg. Decrease in total fat mass was 2.2 kg, 1.2 kg and 1.0 kg of which were VFM and SFM, respectively. Both the changes in VFM and SFM correlated significantly with changes in total fat mass but no correlation was observed in between. The percentage of VFM before experiment positive correlate with changes in VFM after the training. From these results, it was suggested that VFM decreases by dietary administration and exercise training and that the decreases is greater in people with greater VFM.