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Research Paper|Volume 8, Issue 1|pp 111—124

Metabolic effects of a 13-weeks lifestyle intervention in older adults: The Growing Old Together Study

Ondine van de Rest1, Bianca A.M. Schutte2, Joris Deelen2, Stephanie A.M. Stassen3, Erik B. van den Akker2,4, Diana van Heemst3, Petra Dibbets-Schneider5, Regina. A. van Dipten-van der Veen1, Milou Kelderman1, Thomas Hankemeier6, Simon P. Mooijaart3, Jeroen van der Grond5, Jeanine J. Houwing-Duistermaat7, Marian Beekman2, Edith J.M. Feskens1, P. Eline Slagboom2
  • 1Division of Human Nutrition, Wageningen University, 6700 EV Wageningen, The Netherlands
  • 2Department of Molecular Epidemiology, Leiden University Medical Center, 2300 RC Leiden, The Netherlands
  • 3Department of Gerontology and Geriatrics, Leiden University Medical Center, 2300 RC Leiden, The Netherlands
  • 4The Delft Bioinformatics Lab, Delft University of Technology, 2628 CD Delft, The Netherlands
  • 5Department of Radiology, Leiden University Medical Center, 2300 RC Leiden, The Netherlands
  • 6Division of Analytical Biosciences, Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research, Leiden University, Leiden 2300 RA, The Netherlands
  • 7Department of Medical Statistics, Leiden University Medical Center, 2300 RC Leiden, The Netherlands

* * Equal contribution

Received: November 12, 2015Accepted: January 19, 2016Published: January 25, 2016
https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.100877

Copyright: © 2016 van de Rest et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

For people in their 40s and 50s, lifestyle programs have been shown to improve metabolic health. For older adults, however, it is not clear whether these programs are equally healthy. In the Growing Old Together study, we applied a 13-weeks lifestyle program, with a target of 12.5% caloric restriction and 12.5% increase in energy expenditure through an increase in physical activity, in 164 older adults (mean age=63.2 years; BMI=23-35 kg/m2). Mean weight loss was 4.2% (SE=2.8%) of baseline weight, which is comparable to a previous study in younger adults. Fasting insulin levels, however, showed a much smaller decrease (0.30 mU/L (SE=3.21)) and a more heterogeneous response (range=2.0-29.6 mU/L). Many other parameters of metabolic health, such as blood pressure, and thyroid, glucose and lipid metabolism improved significantly. Many 1H-NMR metabolites changed in a direction previously associated with a low risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease and partially independently of weight loss. In conclusion, 25% reduction in energy balance for 13 weeks induced a metabolic health benefit in older adults, monitored by traditional and novel metabolic markers.