Impact of baseline adipose tissue characteristics on change in adipose tissue volume during a low calorie diet in people with obesity—results from the LION study

• Published in: International Journal of Obesity 2024-09, Vol.48 (9), p.1332-1341
• Main Authors: Junker, Daniela, Wu, Mingming, Reik, Anna, Raspe, Johannes, Rupp, Selina, Han, Jessie, Näbauer, Stella M., Wiechert, Meike, Somasundaram, Arun, Burian, Egon, Waschulzik, Birgit, Makowski, Marcus R., Hauner, Hans, Holzapfel, Christina, Karampinos, Dimitrios C.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 59/57; 692/308; 692/698; 692/699/1702/393; 692/699/2743/393; Adipose tissue; Adipose Tissue - pathology; Adult; Adults; Biomedical materials; Body fat; Body Mass Index; Body weight; Body weight loss; Caloric Restriction - methods; Diet; Epidemiology; Female; Health Promotion and Disease Prevention; Humans; Hypocaloric diet; Image processing; Image segmentation; Internal Medicine; Intra-Abdominal Fat - diagnostic imaging; Lipids; Low calorie; Magnetic resonance imaging; Magnetic Resonance Imaging - methods; Male; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Metabolic Diseases; Middle Aged; Multiple regression analysis; Nutrient deficiency; Obesity; Obesity - diet therapy; Parameter identification; Prospective Studies; Public Health; Sex differences; Subcutaneous Fat - diagnostic imaging; Weight control; Weight Loss - physiology; Weight loss measurement
• ISSN: 0307-0565; 1476-5497; 1476-5497
• DOI: 10.1038/s41366-024-01568-6

Background/Objectives Weight loss outcomes vary individually. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-based evaluation of adipose tissue (AT) might help to identify AT characteristics that predict AT loss. This study aimed to assess the impact of an 8-week low-calorie diet (LCD) on different AT depots and to identify predictors of short-term AT loss using MRI in adults with obesity. Methods Eighty-one adults with obesity (mean BMI 34.08 ± 2.75 kg/m², mean age 46.3 ± 10.97 years, 49 females) prospectively underwent baseline MRI (liver dome to femoral head) and anthropometric measurements (BMI, waist-to-hip-ratio, body fat), followed by a post-LCD-examination. Visceral and subcutaneous AT (VAT and SAT) volumes and AT fat fraction were extracted from the MRI data. Apparent lipid volumes based on MRI were calculated as approximation for the lipid contained in the AT. SAT and VAT volumes were subdivided into equidistant thirds along the craniocaudal axis and normalized by length of the segmentation. T -tests compared baseline and follow-up measurements and sex differences. Effect sizes on subdivided AT volumes were compared. Spearman Rank correlation explored associations between baseline parameters and AT loss. Multiple regression analysis identified baseline predictors for AT loss. Results Following the LCD, participants exhibited significant weight loss (11.61 ± 3.07 kg, p