Resumen de Lower Relative Bone Material Content in Obese Adolescents: Role of Non-Weight Bearing Exercise

Danielle L. Templeton, Aaron Kelly, Julia Steinberger, Donald R. Dengel

• We assessed relative bone mineral content (BMC) in normal-weight (BMI < 85th percentile), overweight (BMI = 85th�< 95th percentile), and obese (BMI = 95th percentile) adolescents and evaluated the impact of nonweight bearing stationary cycle exercise training in a subset of obese participants. Obese and overweight adolescents had higher (p = .001) BMC than normal-weight counterparts, but after adjusting for total body mass the overweight and obese adolescents had a significantly lower (p < .001) BMC than normal-weight subjects. Although aerobic training such as cycling would seem optimal for caloric expenditure in obese adolescents, this study showed that eight weeks of cycle training did not improve BMC in obese adolescents. Weight-bearing aerobic exercise would be a better option for optimizing bone health in this population