Muscles, Exercise, and Obesity

A special issue of Medicina (ISSN 1648-9144). This special issue belongs to the section "Sports Medicine and Sports Traumatology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2020) | Viewed by 13981

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Health, Economy, Motricity, and Education (HEME) Research Group, Faculty of Sport Sciences, The University of Extremadura, 10003 Cáceres, Spain
Interests: football training; injury prevention; physiology; physical and sports activities as a strategy to promote a healthy society; physical activity interventions; exercise training physical exercise; physical health; assessment of physical capacity; global health; health; quality of life in groups of subjects and active lifestyle; osteoporosis; fall prevention; body composition
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Obesity is an illness characterized by excess of body fat. The large amount of fat can cause many health problems, like cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, decrease in life expectancy, hyperlipidemia, hypertension, and stroke. The increase in obesity has become a major health issue worldwide affecting all groups in the population, from children to older adults.

Physical exercise involves energy expenditure, and the number of burned calories depend on the intensity, volume and type of exercise performance; thus, exercising is an alternative to reduce body fat mass. The skeletal muscle is a metabolically active tissue that involves energy expenditure, so another treatment against obesity can be the increase in total body muscle mass. Conversely, the loss of muscle mass has been associated with physical disability, which can decrease physical exercise, increase sedentary behavior, decrease energy expenditure, and increase obesity and the consequent health problems.

Therefore, the purpose of this Special Issue is to highlight the role of exercise and muscle mass against obesity.

Dr. Jorge Pérez-Gómez
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • adipose
  • body composition
  • body mass index
  • exercise training
  • lifestyle
  • overweight
  • physical activity physical fitness
  • skeletal muscle

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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9 pages, 739 KiB  
Article
The Relationship between Changes in Organ-Tissue Mass and Sleeping Energy Expenditure Following Weight Change in College Sumo Wrestlers
by Taishi Midorikawa, Shigeho Tanaka, Takafumi Ando, Masayuki Konishi, Megumi Ohta, Suguru Torii and Shizuo Sakamoto
Medicina 2020, 56(10), 536; https://doi.org/10.3390/medicina56100536 - 13 Oct 2020
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2349
Abstract
Background and objectives: It has been well established that the resting energy expenditure (REE) for the whole body is the sum of the REE for each organ-tissue in young and middle-aged healthy adults. Based on these previous studies, although it is speculated [...] Read more.
Background and objectives: It has been well established that the resting energy expenditure (REE) for the whole body is the sum of the REE for each organ-tissue in young and middle-aged healthy adults. Based on these previous studies, although it is speculated that sleeping energy expenditure (SEE, which has small inter-individual variability) changes with a commensurate gain or reduction in the resting metabolic rate of each organ-tissue, it is unclear whether a change in organ-tissue masses is directly attributed to the fluctuation of SEE at present. This study aimed to assess the relationship between changes in organ-tissue mass and sleeping energy expenditure (SEE) following weight change in college Sumo wrestlers. This included blood analysis, which is related to energy expenditure. Materials and Methods: A total of 16 healthy male college Sumo wrestlers were recruited in this study. All measurements were obtained before and after weight change. Magnetic resonance imaging measurements were used to determine the volume of the skeletal muscle (SM), liver, and kidneys, and an indirect human calorimeter was used to determine SEE before and after weight change. Results: The change in body mass and SEE ranged between −8.7~9.5 kg, and −602~388 kcal/day. Moreover, changes in SM, liver, and kidneys ranged between −3.3~3.6 kg, −0.90~0.77 kg, and −0.12~0.07 kg. The change in SEE was not significantly correlated with the change in SM or liver mass, nor with blood analyses; however, a significant relationship between the change in kidney mass and SEE was observed. Conclusions: Based on our results, there is a possibility that the mass of the kidneys has an effect on the change in SEE following weight change in college Sumo wrestlers. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Muscles, Exercise, and Obesity)
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13 pages, 371 KiB  
Article
Influence of Body Composition on Physical Fitness in Adolescents
by María Mendoza-Muñoz, José Carmelo Adsuar, Jorge Pérez-Gómez, Laura Muñoz-Bermejo, Miguel Ángel Garcia-Gordillo and Jorge Carlos-Vivas
Medicina 2020, 56(7), 328; https://doi.org/10.3390/medicina56070328 - 2 Jul 2020
Cited by 27 | Viewed by 3938
Abstract
Background and objectives: Childhood obesity is one of the main public health issues facing advanced societies. The Spanish population presents 28.6% overweight or obese adolescents, and Extremadura, 22.3%. Physical fitness is considered one of the most important health markers and a common predictor [...] Read more.
Background and objectives: Childhood obesity is one of the main public health issues facing advanced societies. The Spanish population presents 28.6% overweight or obese adolescents, and Extremadura, 22.3%. Physical fitness is considered one of the most important health markers and a common predictor of morbidity and mortality caused by cardiovascular diseases. Thus, fitness tests are needed for health monitoring, especially in overweight and obese adolescents. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the relationship between body composition and physical fitness in adolescents and to analyse if there are differences in physical condition and body composition between the sexes, as well as to compare the different body mass index (BMI) categories to each other. This project also tried to find regression equations to predict the physical fitness test results. Materials and Methods: A total of 225 adolescents were recruited. Weight status was classified according to WHO 2007 standards. Body composition variables (i.e., BMI, fat mass (FM), FM percentage (FM%), and fat-free mass (FFM)) and physical fitness (standing long jump (SLJ), speed–agility (SA), cardiorespiratory fitness (CF), and handgrip strength (HS)) were assessed. Results: Significant differences were found between the sexes in body composition (FM%, FM, and FFM) and physical fitness (SLJ, SA, CF, and HS) (p < 0.001) in favour of males. Significant differences were also found in speed (p = 0.002), CF (p < 0.001), and SLJ (p = 0.004) in favour of normal-weight adolescents compared to overweight and obese adolescents. Contrarily, the outcomes revealed a significantly greater HS (p = 0.014) in favour of overweight and obese participants compared to normal-weight adolescents. Moreover, the results showed that CF and SLJ correlated inversely with BMI, FM%, and total FM. There was also a direct relationship between SA and FM percentage, as well as between HS and FFM. Finally, four fitness test predictive models are proposed based on body composition, age, sex, and BMI. Conclusions: Overweight and obese adolescents have lower levels of physical fitness than their normal-weight peers, regardless of their sex. Normal-ranged body composition values are related to a greater physical fitness in adolescents. Furthermore, this study presents several equations that can help to predict the performance of different fitness tests in adolescents. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Muscles, Exercise, and Obesity)

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10 pages, 359 KiB  
Opinion
Obese Animals as Models for Numerous Diseases: Advantages and Applications
by Abdelaziz Ghanemi, Mayumi Yoshioka and Jonny St-Amand
Medicina 2021, 57(5), 399; https://doi.org/10.3390/medicina57050399 - 21 Apr 2021
Cited by 14 | Viewed by 3692
Abstract
With the advances in obesity research, a variety of animal models have been developed to investigate obesity pathogenesis, development, therapies and complications. Such obese animals would not only allow us to explore obesity but would also represent models to study diseases and conditions [...] Read more.
With the advances in obesity research, a variety of animal models have been developed to investigate obesity pathogenesis, development, therapies and complications. Such obese animals would not only allow us to explore obesity but would also represent models to study diseases and conditions that develop with obesity or where obesity represents a risk factor. Indeed, obese subjects, as well as animal models of obesity, develop pathologies such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, inflammation and metabolic disorders. Therefore, obese animals would represent models for numerous diseases. Although those diseases can be induced in animals by chemicals or drugs without obesity development, having them developed as consequences of obesity has numerous advantages. These advantages include mimicking natural pathogenesis processes, using diversity in obesity models (diet, animal species) to study the related variabilities and exploring disease intensity and reversibility depending on obesity development and treatments. Importantly, therapeutic implications and pharmacological tests represent key advantages too. On the other hand, obesity prevalence is continuously increasing, and, therefore, the likelihood of having a patient suffering simultaneously from obesity and a particular disease is increasing. Thus, studying diverse diseases in obese animals (either induced naturally or developed) would allow researchers to build a library of data related to the patterns or specificities of obese patients within the context of pathologies. This may lead to a new branch of medicine specifically dedicated to the diseases and care of obese patients, similar to geriatric medicine, which focuses on the elderly population. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Muscles, Exercise, and Obesity)
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5 pages, 266 KiB  
Opinion
Obesity as a Neuroendocrine Reprogramming
by Abdelaziz Ghanemi, Mayumi Yoshioka and Jonny St-Amand
Medicina 2021, 57(1), 66; https://doi.org/10.3390/medicina57010066 - 13 Jan 2021
Cited by 17 | Viewed by 2806
Abstract
Obesity represents a health problem resulting from a broken balance between energy intake and energy expenditure leading to excess fat accumulation. Elucidating molecular and cellular pathways beyond the establishment of obesity remains the main challenge facing the progress in understanding obesity and developing [...] Read more.
Obesity represents a health problem resulting from a broken balance between energy intake and energy expenditure leading to excess fat accumulation. Elucidating molecular and cellular pathways beyond the establishment of obesity remains the main challenge facing the progress in understanding obesity and developing its treatment. Within this context, this opinion presents obesity as a reprogrammer of selected neurological and endocrine patterns in order to adapt to the new metabolic imbalance represented by obesity status. Indeed, during obesity development, the energy balance is shifted towards increased energy storage, mainly but not only, in adipose tissues. These new metabolic patterns that obesity represents require changes at different cellular and metabolic levels under the control of the neuroendocrine systems through different regulatory signals. Therefore, there are neuroendocrine changes involving diverse mechanisms, such as neuroplasticity and hormonal sensitivity, and, thus, the modifications in the neuroendocrine systems in terms of metabolic functions fit with the changes accompanying the obesity-induced metabolic phenotype. Such endocrine reprogramming can explain why it is challenging to lose weight once obesity is established, because it would mean to go against new endogenous metabolic references resulting from a new “setting” of energy metabolism-related neuroendocrine regulation. Investigating the concepts surrounding the classification of obesity as a neuroendocrine reprogrammer could optimize our understanding of the underlying mechanisms and, importantly, reveal some of the mysteries surrounding the molecular pathogenesis of obesity, as well as focusing the pharmacological search for antiobesity therapies on both neurobiology synaptic plasticity and hormonal interaction sensitivity. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Muscles, Exercise, and Obesity)
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