High percentage of fat intakes, not low fat oxidation, may induce overweight cyclists

There is a number of people who recreationally or professionally participate in regular physical activity that may contribute to reduce body fat and prevent weight gain. However, there are considerable numbers of the people who have excess body fat in this population. Therefore, this study tested the hypothesis that overweight cyclists may be affected by high level of fat oxidation and/or dietary fat intake.

Fourteen male cyclists aged 35-50 years participated in this study. All participants were defined as semi-professional cyclists and assigned to either normal cyclist group (NC, N.=7) or overwieht cyclist group (OC, N.=7) based on %body fat (OC>23%>NC). The participants underwent a maximal effort ergometer test and dietary analysis. Independent t-test and two-way ANOVA with repeated measures were used to analyze data.

There were no differences between NC and OC for age, height, weight, body mass index, and all cardiopulmonary fitness variables at rest and during maximal effort ergometer test. However, this study found that total fat, especially saturated fat intake of OC was significantly higher compared to one of NC (total fat: 110.88±12.98 vs. 53.56±6.94, saturated fat: 36.92±5.98 vs. 16.65±3.41, P<0.05).

The higher amount total fat intake, especially saturated fat intake not total calorie intake, may play a major role in body composition in endurance trained population.