Can cutting down just 200 calories from diet can prevent heart attack?

Exercising is a common recommendation advised to heart patients by most doctors and nutritionists. Aerobic exercises specifically improve circulation and strengthen the heart muscles which further lowers blood pressure and heart rate. While exercise is said to be a heart patient’s best friend, does diet play a role in the journey as well?

According to a new study, cutting just 200 calories a day with moderate exercise reaped bigger rewards than exercise alone for older, obese adults. Read on to know the details of the study and how diet and exercise go hand in hand. (image credits- istock)

Among older adults with obesity, combining aerobic exercise with a moderate reduction in daily calories resulted in greater improvements in aortic stiffness (a measure of vascular health, which impacts cardiovascular disease), compared to exercise only or to exercise plus a more restrictive diet.

The findings of the study were published in the journal 'Circulation'.

Modifiable lifestyle factors such as a healthy diet and regular physical activity may help offset age-related increases in aortic stiffness. Although aerobic exercise generally has favourable effects on aortic structure and function, previous studies have shown that exercise alone may not be sufficient to improve aortic stiffness in older adults with obesity. (image credits- istock)

"This is the first study to assess the effects of aerobic exercise training with and without reducing calories on aortic stiffness, which was measured via cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) to obtain detailed images of the aorta," said Tina E. Brinkley, PhD, lead author of the study and associate professor of gerontology and geriatric medicine at the Sticht Center for Healthy Aging and Alzheimer's Prevention at Wake Forest School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

"We sought to determine whether adding caloric restriction for weight loss would lead to greater improvements in vascular health compared to aerobic exercise alone in older adults with obesity," added Brinkley. (image credits- istock)

This randomised controlled trial included 160 sedentary adults, ages 65-79 years with obesity (BMI=30-45 kg/m2). The average age of the participants was 69 years; 74 per cent were female, and 73 percent were white.

Participants were randomly assigned to one of three intervention groups for 20 weeks: 1) exercise only with their regular diet, 2) exercise plus moderate calorie restriction (reduction of approximately 250 calories/day), or 3) exercise plus more intensive calorie restriction (reduction of approximately 600 calories/day). (image credits- istock)

The two calorie-restricted groups received pre-made lunches and dinners with less than 30 percent of calories from fat and at least 0.8 grams of protein per kg of their ideal body weight, prepared under the direction of a registered dietitian for the study; they made their own breakfasts according to the dietitian-approved menu.

Everyone in the study received supervised aerobic exercise training four days per week for the duration of the 20-week study at the Geriatric Research Center at Wake Forest School of Medicine. (image credits- istock)

The results found that weight loss of nearly 10% of total body weight or about 20 pounds over the five-month study period was associated with significant improvements in aortic stiffness -- only in the participants assigned to the exercise plus moderate calorie restriction group. Additional findings include:

1. The exercise plus moderate calorie restriction group had a 21 per cent increase in distensibility and an 8 per cent decrease in PWV.

2. None of the aortic stiffness measures changed significantly in either the exercise-only group or the exercise plus more intensive calorie restriction group.

3. Changes in BMI, total fat mass, percent body fat, abdominal fat and waist circumference were greater in both of the calorie-restricted groups compared to the exercise-only group.

4. Weight loss was similar between the calorie-restricted groups despite nearly two times fewer calories (26.7 percent reduction in calories vs. a 14.2 percent reduction in calories) in the intensive calorie restriction group. (image credits- istock)

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