FAT LOSS: PHYSICAL RESPONSES
In a comprehensive review of the issue in 1991, Dr Andrew Prentice and his associates at the Dunn Clinical Nutrition Centre in Cambridge, identified the physiological outcomes of slimming. These included: energy sparing adaptations, alterations in fat and lean body mass, altered energy substrate handling, changes in appetite, health related outcomes such as fitness and glucose tolerance, altered hormonal status, and altered fertility. These changes with slimming may also be moderated by a number of influences including genotype, degree of obesity at the onset of slimming, rate and duration of weight loss, composition of the slimming diet, use or non-use of exercise in the slimming regime and the influence of drugs if these are used.
Counteracting body composition changes. Exercise is usually promoted as a means of reducing FFM losses to a minimum. Prentice and his colleagues cite eleven studies which were carried out to 1991, nine of which show exercise to be effective in reducing muscle loss. There have been many more since. However, it is likely that the more restrictive the dietary regimen, the less likely FFM losses will be reduced by exercise.
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