EFFECT OF REGAIN OF BODY-WEIGHT ON REGIONAL BODY-FAT DISTRIBUTION - COMPARISON BETWEEN PREMENOPAUSAL AND POSTMENOPAUSAL OBESE WOMEN

The aim of our study was to determine if regain of body weight increas es visceral fat in obese women and if regain of weight has a different effect upon pre- and postmenopausal women, Twenty obese women (11 pre - and 9 postmenopausal) underwent a very low energy diet (VLED) for 2 weeks to lose weight. They then regained body weight in spite of the r ecommended hypocaloric diet, No significant modifications in body fat distribution indexes were Pound by computed tomography between VLED an d after regain of weight, No significant changes were found in metabol ic variables, No interactions between menopausal status and regain of body weight were observed, in conclusion, regain of weight does not se em to cause an increase in visceral fat; both pre- and postmenopausal women showed the same body fat distribution before weight loss and aft er regain of weight.