Equivocal findings regarding the influence of overweight/obesity on exercise lipid-oxidizing capacity (EX-LIPOX) might reflect inadequate control of 1) acute energy balance/macronutrient composition of diet; 2) intensity/duration of exercise; and/or 3) insulin sensitivity (IS) of participant. To assess independent/combined influences of IS and overweight/obesity with other factors controlled, we recruited sedentary adults with normal weight (NW; n = 15) or overweight/obesity (O; n = 15) subdivided into metabolically healthy (MH; n = 8) and unhealthy (MU; n = 7) groups (IS; MH > MU). Participants completed a 9-day, weight-stabilizing, controlled-feeding protocol comprising measurements of resting metabolism, body composition, oral glucose tolerance, and maximal exercise capacity. We measured EX-LIPOX during the initial 45 min of "steady state" during constant-work-rate cycling at 70% and 100% of participant gas-exchange threshold (GET). At 70%, average EX-LIPOX in absolute (0.11 ± 0.02 g·min-1) and relative (2.4 ± 0.3 mg·kgFFM-1·min-1) terms was lower for NW-MU than MH regardless of body composition (NW-MH, 0.19 ± 0.02 g·min-1/3.9 ± 0.3 mg·kgFFM-1·min-1; O-MH, 0.19 ± 0.02 g·min-1/3.7 ± 0.3 mg·kgFFM-1·min-1), whereas no difference was present for NW-MU and O-MU (0.15 ± 0.02 g·min-1/2.8 ± 0.3 mg·kgFFM-1·min-1). Multiple regression confirmed that with IS-controlled, overweight/obesity was not associated with decreased EX-LIPOX, whereas decreased EX-LIPOX was associated with decreased IS independent of overweight/obesity. Overweight/obesity also did not influence EX-LIPOX across MH groups or with cohort divided by body-composition classification alone (P > 0.05). Exercise lipid-oxidizing capacity is impaired with poor IS regardless of body composition, but not with overweight/obesity per se.NEW & NOTEWORTHY In this study, we have shown that the capacity to oxidize lipid during exercise is influenced by metabolic health of the exerciser regardless of body composition, but not by body composition per se. This observation refutes the belief that a reduced capacity to oxidize lipid is an obligatory characteristic of the overweight/obese condition while supporting the contention that exercise should be prescribed with specificity based on both absence/presence of overweight/obesity and compromise/lack thereof in metabolic health.
Keywords: exercise; insulin resistance; lipid oxidation; metabolic health; obesity.