Obesity: reversible biological adaptation or disease?

Introduction: Obesity is an unfavorable state of health as a result of which come in the initial adaptation, that could gradually transform into specific disease condition. Objectives: The aim of the study was to assess the degree of middle-aged men adaptation to obesity in terms of somatic changes, exercise capacity and cardiopulmonary fitness. Materials and Methods: The study involved 12 obese middle-aged men (OG) - BMI = 34.32 ± 4.11 kg/m2. The control group (CG) consisted of 12 non-obese middle-aged men- BMI = 23.72 ± 1.83 kg/m2,with similar body height (BH) to OG. After recording somatic and physiological data at rest, participants were subjected to the bicycle ergometer test (BT) gradually increasing intensity. During the BT aerobic power (AP) was recorded and analyzed along with parameters characterizing the efficiency of the circulatory and respiratory systems at anaerobic threshold (AT) and the maximum load (ML). Results: This study has shown that obese men have a higher body mass (BM), a higher content of fat (BF), an increased lean body mass (FFM) and a higher content of water (TBW) than CG (p <0.001). Absolute and relatively expressed in relation to the FFM respondents’ values of AP and VO2 were similar in both groups and after taking under the consideration the body weight, they were significantly lower in OG than in the CG. Furthermore, adverse effects have been observed that emerged on some cardiovascular and respiratory variables at rest in case of OG; these effects did not occur during physical exertion. Conclusions: Beyond negative changes occurring obesity in the first stage led to favorable somatic adaptation that entails an increase of FFM in OG, which gives a positive impact on the capacity of physical work of obese men and produces a beneficial effect on the resulting compensation impairment in the respiratory and circulatory systems of these subjects.