Walking Attenuates the Relationships of High‐Meat, Low‐Fruit Dietary Intake to Total and Regional Adiposity in Men and Women

Abstract

Vigorous physical activity (running) has been shown to attenuate the association between diet and body weight. Walking is the most popular physical activity, but is a moderate-intensity physical activity because it requires less than six-fold the energy expenditure of sitting at rest. We therefore examined whether reported distance walked per week affected the relationship of diet to BMI and circumferences of the waist, hip, and chest in 30,014 female and 7,133 male participants of the National Walkers’ Health Study. Reported meat and fruit intakes served as indicators of high-risk diets for weight gain. The analyses showed that higher meat and lower fruit intake were significantly and consistently associated with greater BMI and waist circumference at all activity levels. Longer usual walking distance significantly attenuated the concordant relationships of diet with women’s BMIs (P<10−8), men’s BMIs (P=0.04), and women’s waist (P<10−6), hip (P=0.0001) and chest circumferences (P<10−5). Compared to walkers who averaged <1.5 km/d, the association of diet with adiposity in subjects who walked ≥ 1.5 km/d was reduced 21% in women and 31% in men for BMI; 20% in women and 27% in men for waist circumference; 19% for woman’s hip circumference; and 26% for women’s chest circumference. Thus we conclude that diets characterized by high-meat/low-fruit intake were significantly associated with greater BMI, and this association was attenuated by moderate physical activity. The weaker results in men than women probably related to the smaller sample size, and reduced statistical power of the men.

Attenuating Effect of Vigorous Physical Activity on the Risk for Inherited Obesity: A Study of 47,691 Runners

“…These effects may be evidence of a more general phenomenon of obesity risk factors having a greater effect on overweight and obese men and women than those who are lean [29]. In this regard, we have also demonstrated that diet appeared to produce less effect in the generally leaner high-mileage runners and walkers vis-à-vis the generally heavier low-mileage runners and walkers [30], [31].…”

Evidence That Obesity Risk Factor Potencies Are Weight Dependent, a Phenomenon That May Explain Accelerated Weight Gain in Western Societies

“…The assessment of dietary intake used in these analyses is limited compared to four- or seven-day dietary records and excludes potato chips, potatoes, sugar-sweetened beverages, vegetables, whole grains, and nuts that may contribute to weight gain [40]. However, this assessment of meat and fruit intake compares favorably with their assessment using four-day food records, and has been shown to yield consistently significant positive relationships between BMI and reported meat intake in 18 separate subpopulations, and significant inverse relationship between BMI and reported fruit intake in 14 out of 18 subpopulations [41], [42]. It is also acknowledged that the sample may not be exactly representative of the general population, but that the processes promoting weight gain are not expected to differ fundamentally from those of the general population.…”

2003-2013: A Decade of Body Mass Index, Alzheimer's Disease, and Dementia

“…Another possibility is that diet also influences risk for dementia. Although, whether changes in dementia risk are associated with dietary intake as a result of dietary components themselves [63][64][65] or indirectly via an altering BMI [66,67] is unknown. Studies typically adjust analyses of nutrients for energy intake, and those that independently examine the association between energy intake and dementia have proven inconclusive.…”