Effective Weight Reduction in Patients with Metabolic Syndrome by an Individual Sport Therapeutic Program - An Empiric Analysis

Objective: The most successful strategies to treat metabolic syndrome combine changes of nutrition / lifestyle with activity or sports.The latter includes aerobic endurance training only in most studies.We investigated the efficacy of a highly individualized program which also includes strength training to increase the highly metabolic active muscular tissue.Methods: Prospective study with 48 probands (17 males, 31 females, mean body weight 104.3 kg (+/-23.64),mean BMI of 36.3 (+/-6.76)).All were trained in nutrition and all got an individualized sport program which focused both, aerobic endurance and strength.Observation period was three months.Primary outcome measurement was reduction of body weight and BMI, secondary parameters were abdominal circumference, body fat, total cholesterol, high density lipoproteins (HDL), low density lipoproteins (LDL), triglycerides, and uric acid.Results: The reduction of body weight and BMI were highly significant (P<0.001) as it was for abdominal circumference (P<0.001) and body fat mass (P<0.001).Mean HDL and LDL showed tendencies to normal values, cholesterol decrease was (marginal) significant (P=0.052).Triglycerides and uric acid remained constant during the observation period. Conclusion:The program proved to be highly effective, although a direct comparison to others is difficult for several reasons.These and the limitations of the study are discussed in detail.