Maintenance of improvements in fitness and fatness 1 year after a 3-month lifestyle intervention in overweight men

Sustained improvements in cardiovascular fitness and body composition after lifestyle interventions are challenging. The present study investigated whether changes in cardiovascular fitness and body composition were maintained for up to 1 year after similar exercise-induced (T) or diet-induced weight loss (D) or exercise without weight loss (T-iD) in overweight sedentary men. Six and 12 months after the interventions, we measured cardiovascular fitness and body composition. Cardiovascular fitness was higher at both 6- (3.2±1.5 ml O2/kg/min, P=0.053) and 12-month follow-up (3.9±1.4 ml O2/kg/min, P=0.049) compared with pre-intervention in T. Fat mass (-3.0±1.2 kg, P=0.04) and abdominal fat (-3.6±1.5%, P=0.04) were lower within T at 12-month follow-up compared with pre-intervention. This did not occur in D (P>0.13) or T-iD (P>0.14), although body weight was lower in D (-2.5±2.2 kg, P=0.09). This study showed that fitness and fatness were not returned to pre-intervention levels 1 year after a 3-month exercise-induced weight-loss intervention.