Role of exercise-training in the prevention of hyperinsulinemia caused by high energy diet.

The present study was undertaken to determine whether exercise-training done in combination with feeding a high energy diet could modulate carbohydrate metabolism. Male rats were divided into exercise-trained or sedentary groups that received either a palatable high energy diet or merely standard laboratory diet. After 10 weeks of training, the animals were subjected to an intravenous glucose tolerance test. Body weight, epididymal fat pads, and adipocyte volume were reduced following training. The results also showed that exercise-training protects against deterioration of glucose tolerance produced by high energy diet. Training prevented the elevation of basal as well as glucose challenged insulin levels induced by the high energy diet in spite of a high fat as well as high overall energy intake. A highly significant coefficient of correlation (r = 0.78, P less than 0.01) was observed between the size of adipocytes and the insulin response to glucose load and suggests that the prevention of hyperinsulinemia in rats fed high energy foods while training could be associated with the ability to prevent obesity.