Adding diet and exercise counseling to the health promotion plan alleviates anthropometric and metabolic complications in patients with metabolic syndrome

Abstract

We investigated the effects of individual (IC) and group (GC) diet and exercise counseling in men with metabolic syndrome. Participants received exercise instruction and exercise load was monitored. IC participants received individual diet counseling sessions and general consultations at baseline and monthly. GC participants received a group diet counseling session at baseline and general consultations at baseline and monthly. In the IC group, body mass index (BMI) percent body fat, waist circumference, diastolic blood pressure, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, glycosylated hemoglobin A1c, and liver function levels were reduced significantly after 3 months, whereas in the GC group, waist circumference and levels of liver function were reduced. Exercise load was negatively correlated with change in BMI and waist circumference in the IC group, and positively correlated with changes in high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels in all subjects and in the GC group. Diet and exercise counseling, especially IC, may benefit patients with metabolic syndrome.

Keywords: counsel; diet; exercise; metabolic syndrome; waist circumference.

Figure 1

Comparison of differences in various parameters between IC and GC using an unpaired Student’s t-test. Note: The Δ symbol represents change in parameter value from baseline to month 3 of counseling. Abbreviations: IC, individual counseling; GC, group counseling; BMI, body mass index; SBP, systolic blood pressure; LDL-C, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol; HOMA-IR, fasting plasma glucose (mg/dL) × fasting insulin (μU/mL)/405; HbA_1c, glycosylated hemoglobin A_1c.