Source: Annual Congress 2012 - Exercise capacity: from elite athletes to severe impairment

Abstract

Obesity, which has been considerably increasing in the last decades, is related to significant metabolic alterations.
The aim of this study was to evaluate whether this condition can also alter the VO2 (considered as the best assessment of cardiorespiratory form in healthy children) and the power in a group of obese children compared to a group of control children.
We tested 98 children: 42 controls and 56 obese children. Each child underwent the incremental test on the cycle ergometer according to a protocol of increasing effort.
VO2 values were 2027.6 ml/min for the group of controls and 2078.0 ml/min for the obese children (p>0.05); instead, the values of VO2/kg were lower in the obese children 32.3 ml/kg compared to the group of controls 38.7 ml/kg/min (p<0.01). The higher value of power was obtained in the group of control children (140 watt) and lower in the obese (120 watt) (p<0.05); this parameter normalized for the mass was higher in the group of controls (2.7 watt/kg) compared to obese children (1.9 watt/kg)(p<0.01).
Given the greater body mass of obese due to an increased fat component, it is not surprising that the VO2 is higher. These subjects must in fact move a large mass, with a considerable consumption of energy, to the detriment of their ability to work. The VO2/kg values are lower in the obese as cardiac or metabolic disease limit the peripheral oxygen consumption. In obese children the power values are lower as the lean body mass consumes less oxygen that fat body mass, it produced less work therefore less power. Power/kg is lower in obese children due to their larger mass.

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Citations should be made in the following way:
M. Tubaro, I. Benfatto, M. Canciani, F. Valent (Udine, Italy). A metabolic evaluation of a group of obese children: Oxygen consumption (VO2) and power. Eur Respir J 2012; 40: Suppl. 56, 848

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