Insulin resistance in obesity: body-weight or energy balance

Weight reduction is recommended for the treatment of subjects with insulin resistance (IR) syndrome; however, the relative importance of the decrease in body fat or the negative energy balance achieved during a hypo-energetic diet in the improvement of this metabolic syndrome is still debated. Therefore, we undertook to study their relative impact on amelioration of the metabolic abnormalities associated with IR in obese subjects. Twelve obese subjects (six males and six females, mean.. body mass index 36·14·7 kg/m2) aged 38–57 years were investigated. During the first phase they were fed a hypo-energetic diet for 6 weeks (week 0–6). During the second phase, lasting 4 weeks (week 6–10) they consumed an iso-energetic diet. During the thir