Effects of exercise-rest cycles on energy balance in rats

The present study investigated the nutritional energetics of rats exercised either intermittently or continually. Male rats were divided into three groups: a sedentary group, an intermittently trained group, and a continually trained group. Continually trained rats were exercised every day for a period of 8 wk. Over the same period, intermittently trained rats were exercised for 4 wk, each week being followed by a week of rest. Rats were trained on a rodent treadmill at a moderate intensity. Carcasses were analyzed for energy, fat, and protein contents. Brown adipose tissue (BAT) thermogenesis was assessed by measuring mitochondrial guanosine 5'-diphosphate binding. Energy intake was lower in both intermittently and continually trained rats than in sedentary animals. The weight, fat, and protein gains were, in continually trained rats, significantly lower than in sedentary animals. Similarly, intermittently trained rats had lower gains than sedentary animals, although the difference between the two groups was not as marked as the difference between sedentary and continually trained animals. Energy expenditure, which represents the difference between energy intake and energy gain, was less than sedentary controls in both intermittently and continually trained rats. The low expenditure in trained groups did not, however, relate to changes in facultative BAT thermogenesis.A low energy expenditure on components such as basal metabolic rate and obligatory diet-induced thermogenesis would most likely account for the difference in expenditure between sedentary and trained rats.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)