Relationships of lipid and glucose metabolism with waist hip ratio and physical fitness in obese men

The waist-hip ratio (WHR) is an indirect index of abdominal type obesity which has been shown to be strongly correlated with the risk of coronary heart disease. Empirically, men who have a higher WHR seem to have a lower level of physical fitness. In the present study, the relationships of lipid and glucose metabolism with WHR and physical fitness were examined in 207 Japanese obese men. Physical fitness was evaluated by the oxygen uptake at the onset of blood lactate accumulation (OBLA- VO ₂ ; ml/kg/min) which corresponds to 4 mmol/1 of blood lactate during graded exercise test and is one of the best indicators of the muscle oxidative capacity. The WHR and percentage of body fat (% body fat) were significantly correlated with OBLA-VO ₂ . The WHR and % body fat were significantly related to each other. After adjusting for % body fat, a significant negative correlation was observed between the WHR and OBLA-VO ₂ (r = -0.24, P < 0.05). A multiple linear regression was calculated for parameters relating to lipids, and glucose and insulin areas separately, when the WHR, OBLA-VO ₂ , % body fat and age were entered as independent variables. OBLA- VO ₂ significantly showed a negative relationship with triglyceride (TG), HDL-C/total cholesterol, and the insulin area, while the WHR was only independently related to TG. From these results, we conclude that the physical fitness level evaluated by OBLA-VO ₂ , which represents the capacity of the aerobic metabolism in muscle, may thus be a determinant of lipid and glucose metabolism in obese men.