Poster Presentation The Annual Scientific Meeting of the Australian Diabetes Society and the Australian Diabetes Educators Association 2013

Visceral fat accumulation and metabolic risk factors of westernized overweight young males of Asian and European descent  (#314)

Mehrdad Heydari 1 , Yati N. Boutcher 1 , Judith Freund 2 , Steve H. Boutcher 1
  1. School of Medical Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
  2. Department of Nuclear Medicine, St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney, Australia

Objective: The relationship between visceral fat, liver fat, diet, fitness, and metabolic risk factors of westernized inactive young men of Asian (AM) and European (EM) descent were compared. Methods: AM (n=22) and EM (n=18) males had body composition measured by DEXA and computerized tomography (CT). Maximal oxygen consumption, diet, insulin, HOMA-IR, glucose, and blood lipids were also assessed. Results: Insulin resistance was significantly higher in AM compared to EM(P < 0.05). In contrast to EM, waist circumference(r = 0.74, P < 0.01) and liver fat (r = 0.74, P < 0.01) were significantly associated with visceral fat in AM. Fasting glucose was correlated with visceral and liver fat in AM(r = 0.60; r = 0.58, P < 0.01) but not in EM.  Relative to body mass, protein consumption was significantly higher in the AM (23%) compared to the EM (17%), P < 0.01. In contrast to EM, insulin resistance was correlated to protein (r = 0.85, P < 0.01) and saturated fat consumption (r = 0.90, P < 0.01) in AM. Also visceral fat was correlated to protein (r = 0.63, P < 0.05) and saturated fat consumption (r = 0.85, P < 0.05) in the AM but not in the EM group. Conclusion: The visceral and liver fat of overweight AM males who were unfit and consumed high levels of protein was more strongly related to metabolic syndrome markers than EM males.