The relationship between weight and response to cholesterol-lowering diets in women

Abstract

Objective: To determine whether factors related to body weight might influence the cholesterol lowering response to diet.

Design: Run-In diet followed by crossover to low fat diets; average response is reported.

Subjects: Sixty-three subjects (30 men and 33 women) with moderately elevated plasma cholesterol levels.

Measurements: Lipid and anthropometric measurements. Data were analyzed as a repeated measures analysis of variance with lipid lowering response in all combined cholesterol lowering diets compared to baseline.

Results: LDL cholesterol lowering was significantly affected by BMI in women (P = 0.01) but not in men (P = 0.54). There was also a weak effect of waist-hip (W/H) ratio on response (P = 0.127) in women, with the lower responders having a higher W/H ratio but there was no effect of W/H ratio in men (P = 0.86).

Conclusion: These results suggest that overweight women with elevated plasma cholesterol may be less responsive to reducing their cholesterol levels with diet.