Effect of a basic Chinese traditional diet in overweight patients.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect of a basic Chinese traditional diet (BTCD) in overweight patients on body mass index (BMI), lean mass, sense of hunger, and eating behaviour. METHODS: A total of 694 enrolled subjects (218 male and 476 female) were divided into two groups: group A undergoing a 1200-Kcal BTCD, and group B undergoing a 1200-Kcal standard western diet. RESULTS: From T0 (before treatment) to T1 (6 weeks after treatment), BMI was lowered in group A from (32.33 +/- 5.51) to (31.96 +/- 5.56) kg/m2, and in group B from (31.62 +/- 6.29) to (31.36 +/- 6.47) kg/m2. After treatment, patients in group A lost more weight (0.37 +/- 0.52) kg than group B (0.26 +/- 0.79) kg (P = 0.0044). From T0 to T1, the mean lean mass of group A decreased from (16.48 +/- 5.50) to (16.27 +/- 5.45) kg. In group B, mean lean mass decreased from (16.93 +/- 6.49) to (16.44 +/- 6.29) kg. The difference was significant (P = 0.0078). CONCLUSION: The two diets could lead to lower BMI, improve lean mass as well as eating behaviour and sense of hunger. However, the BTCD was significantly better than the western standard diet.

Lower-limb joint coordination pattern in obese subjects.

The coordinative pattern is an important feature of locomotion that has been studied in a number of pathologies. It has been observed that adaptive changes in coordination patterns are due to both external and internal constraints. Obesity is characterized by the presence of excess mass at pelvis and lower-limb areas, causing mechanical constraints that central nervous system could manage modifying the physiological interjoint coupling relationships. Since an altered coordination pattern may induce joint diseases and falls risk, the aim of this study was to analyze whether and how coordination during walking is affected by obesity. We evaluated interjoint coordination during walking in 25 obese subjects as well as in a control group. The time-distance parameters and joint kinematics were also measured. When compared with the control group, obese people displayed a substantial similarity in joint kinematic parameters and some differences in the time-distance and in the coupling parameters. Obese subjects revealed higher values in stride-to-stride intrasubjects variability in interjoint coupling parameters, whereas the coordinative mean pattern was unaltered. The increased variability in the coupling parameters is associated with an increased risk of falls and thus should be taken into account when designing treatments aimed at restoring a normal locomotion pattern.