Visceral lipid accumulation, organ hypertrophy and a reduction in skeletal muscle strength are all signs associated with the severity of obesity-related disease. Intermittent fasting (IF) and high-intensity intermittent exercise (HIIE) are natural strategies that, individually, can prevent and help treat obesity along with metabolic syndrome and its associated diseases. However, the combinatorial effect of IF and HIIE on energetic metabolism is currently not well understood. We hypothesized that their combination could have a potential for more than strictly additive benefits. Here, we show that two months of every-other-day intermittent fasting regimen combined with a high-intensity intermittent exercise protocol (IF/HIIE) produced a synergistic effect, enhancing physical endurance (vs. control, HIIE and IF) and optimizing metabolic pathways of energy production in male Wistar rats. The IF/HIIE group presented enhanced glucose tolerance (vs. control, HIIE and IF), lower levels of plasma insulin (vs. control and HIIE), and a global activation of low Km hexokinases in liver (vs. control, HIIE and IF), heart (vs. control and HIIE) and skeletal muscle (vs. control, HIIE and IF). The IF/HIIE synergism, rather than a simply additive effect, is evidenced by increase in muscle mass and cross-section area, activation of the FoF1 ATP synthase, and the gain of characteristics suggestive of augmented mitochondrial mass and efficiency observed in this group. Finally, important reductions in plasma oxidative stress markers were present preferentially in IF/HIIE group. These findings provide new insights for the implementation of non-pharmaceutical strategies to prevent/treat metabolic syndrome and associated diseases.

Perfusion of hearts with extracts of Ilex paraguariensis (IP/mate) appears to reduce ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury. To determine if oral consumption of IP/mate can provide similar cardioprotection, short-term consumption was investigated alone or in association with exercise in rats. Animals were grouped into control (C), IP/mate consumption (M), exercise (E), and exercise with mate (E+M). M and E+M groups consumed IP/mate (1 g·kg body weight in 1 mL water) by gavage. E and E+M groups swam 7× per week for 30 min carrying an additional 5% of body weight. After 1 week, hearts were tested ex vivo to measure left ventricle developed pressure (LVDP), systolic and end diastolic pressure (LVSP/LVEDP), maximum velocity of contraction and relaxation (dP/dt+ and dP/dt-) during I/R and infarction size. In addition, cardiac tissue was analyzed for oxidative stress by lipid peroxidation and protein carbonyl levels along with activity of catalase and superoxide dismutase (SOD). LVDP was higher in hearts from M and E groups as well as decreased infarction sizes than others. At the end of reperfusion, dP/dt+ was increased in E and M and dP/dt- was higher in M. LVSP was higher in M and E compared with C. Protein carbonyl and thiobarbituric acid reactive substances levels were higher in M while SOD activity was increased in E. No differences were observed in other activities. The results suggest that short-term consumption of IP/mate has protective effects on heart I/R injury similar to exercise, but the combination of these interventions appears to contradict the beneficial adaptations from exercise.

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OBJECTIVE: Verify the influence of different exercise orders on the performance of the number of maximal repetitions in older women. METHODS: Twelve older women (65.7 ± 5.6 years, 66.9 ± 9.5 kg, 1.56 ± 0.67 m, 27.4 ± 3.6 kg/m 2 ) underwent four nonconsecutive visits and two different orders of Resistance Training. At the first visit, the volunteers were submitted to anamnesis, anthropometric evaluation and a 10RM test. On the second visit, a re-test of 10RM was performed. On the third and fourth visits, the volunteers performed two exercise sequences: sequence A: bench press, latissimus pulldown close grip, biceps curl, triceps extension; for sequence B the order was inverted. Performance was measured by the number of repetitions in each exercise. To determine differences in performance for sequence A vs. sequence B, repeated measures were performed by two-way ANOVA followed by the Tuckey post-hoc test. RESULTS: The number of repetitions of each exercise varied significantly for the bench press, biceps curl and triceps extension between the exercise sequences. CONCLUSIONS: The order of the exercises performed in a resistance training session can affect the performance in the number of repetitions in older women.

High accuracy in estimating energy expenditure is essential for enhancing sports performance. The resting metabolic rate (RMR), as a primary component of total energy expenditure (TEE), is commonly estimated using predictive equations. However, these references may not be applicable to adolescent athletes. The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to analyse the differences between predicted RMR in relation to energy expenditure measured by indirect calorimetry (IC) among 45 Brazilian male adolescent football athletes. Indirect calorimetry (IC) and anthropometric (bioimpedance) measurements were recorded at a single visit to the laboratory after fasting overnight. The mean age was 15.6 ± 1.14 years, body mass was 63.05 ± 7.8 kg, and height was 172 ± 7.5 cm. The RMR values predicted by equations proposed by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) (United Nations), Henry and Rees (HR), Harris Benedict (HB), and Cunningham (CUN) were compared with IC RMR values, by correlation analysis. The FAO and HR predictive equations yielded different values from IC (IC: 1716.26 ± 202.58, HR: 1864.87 ± 147.78, FAO: 1854.28 ± 130.19, p = 0.001). A moderate correlation of 0.504 was found between the results of HB and IC. In the survival-agreement model, the CUN equation showed low disagreement with the IC RMR, with error values between 200 and 300 kcal/day. The results showed that HB and CUN yielded similar values as IC, with the CUN equation showing low disagreement with IC; hence, adolescent athletes should undergo evaluation with precise laboratory methods to ensure that accurate information about RMR is recorded.

2Visceral lipid accumulation, organ hypertrophy and a reduction in skeletal muscle 3 strength are all signs associated with the severity of obesity related disease. Intermittent 4 fasting (IF) and high-intensity intermittent exercise (HIIE) are natural strategies that, 5 individually, can prevent and ameliorate obesity along with metabolic syndrome and its 6 associated diseases. However, the combinatorial effect of IF and HIIF on energetic 7 metabolism is currently not well understood. We hypothesized that their combination 8 could have a potential for more than strictly additive benefits. Here, we show that two 9 months of every-other-day intermittent fasting regimen combined with a high-intensity 10 intermittent exercise protocol (IF/HIIE) produce a synergetic effect, preventing fat 11 accumulation, enhancing physical performance and optimizing energy production. The 12 IF/HIIE group presented increased glucose uptake, lower levels of serum insulin and a 13 global activation of hexokinases in skeletal muscle, heart and liver comparing to control, 14 IF and HIIE groups. IF/HIIE synergism led to activation of the FoF1 ATP synthase and 15 promoted a more oxidative profile of mitochondria in observed skeletal muscle. 16 Additionally, high-resolution respirometry of muscle fibers showed that animals in the 17 IF/HIIE group presented characteristics suggestive of augmented mitochondrial mass 18 and efficiency. Finally, an important reduction in serum oxidative stress markers were 19 observed in IF/HIIE group. These findings provide new insights for the implementation 20 of non-pharmaceutical strategies to prevent/treat metabolic syndrome and associated 21 diseases. 22 1 Introduction 2Obesity and metabolic syndrome are both important risk factors for life threatening 3 diseases that can target cardiovascular and hepatic systems (1, 2). The prevalence of obesity 4 and metabolic syndrome is a reality for developed countries, which began more than two 5 decades ago (3). Today, the incidence of obesity and metabolic syndrome is rapidly 6 increasing in developing countries as well (4), leading to increased morbidity and mortality 7 due to type 2 diabetes mellitus, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, and cardiovascular disease 8 (5, 6). Recently, global climate change was implicated in the onset of obesity and type 2 9 diabetes due to the negative impact of higher temperatures on energy metabolism (7, 8).10 This means that the overall prevalence of obesity and metabolic syndrome tends to 11 aggravate in the next few years allied with the increased reduction in physical activity (9). 12Intermittent fasting (IF) regimens and high-intensity intermittent exercise (HIIE) are 13 two natural strategies to prevent and mitigate obesity related diseases (10, 11). An every-14 other-day IF regimen was recently demonstrated by Li, Xie (12) to dramatically reduce 15 obesity, insulin resistance, and hepatic steatosis in rodents by altering the gut microbiota. 16 Conversely, the adaptations promoted by HIIE in rodents has been demonstrated ...

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21Studies on strategies to generate cardioprotective effects have been on the rise. 22 Previous work by our group with an ex vivo model of ischemia/reperfusion has shown 23 that both the short-term consumption of yerba mate and exercise can each induce 24 protection of cardiac function independently. Surprising, the two strategies together do 25 not, with an apparent loss of their respective cardioprotection activity. To improve our 26 understanding of the mechanisms involved without reperforming the experiments, we 27 have conducted a retrospective data science-analysis that have produced new insights. 28The analysis shows that yerba mate generated reductive stress. Alone, this stress 29 increased redox damage in the heart that appears to have led to a protective 30 conditioning. In combination with exercise, the effects of mate inhibited the intermittent 31 ROS generation promoted by exercise alone, which diminished the adaptive response 32 in the heart. These results suggest that an understanding of the molecular mechanisms 33 involved with the yerba mate-promoted reductive stress in cardiac tissue could lead to 34 improved strategies to induce cardioprotection.35