Cardiac Sympathetic Modulation Increase After Weight Loss in Combat Sports Athletes

Abstract

Introduction: Although the rapid weight loss process is undertaken by combat sports athletes very often, the impact of this practice on cardiovascular health is not fully understood. Objective: To verify the effects of the rapid weight loss process undertaken by combat sports athletes on hemodynamic parameters, cardiovascular autonomic modulation and mood state. Methods: Eight male fighters (21.62±1.49 years, 71.25±3.54 kg, 1.74±0.03 cm) were assessed in the city of São Paulo. The subjects had 5.37±0.77 years of practice and were training 5.75±0.45 days per week, for 3.05±0.69 hours per day. The athletes were assessed on 2 occasions: 14 days before and 1 day before official weigh-in. Weight, height and bioimpedance were used for body composition analysis. Mood state was assessed using the Brums Mood Scale. Blood pressure was measured at rest with a digital meter. Cardiovascular autonomic modulation was obtained through an analysis of heart rate variability recorded for 25 minutes at rest. The Student's t-test for dependent samples was used for comparison between time points. Values of p<0.05 were considered significant. Results: No differences in body composition were observed between the time points evaluated. After the weight loss strategy, increases in mood state parameters related to anger, vigor and fatigue categories were observed. Blood pressure did not change between the time points evaluated. However, an increase in heart rate associated with greater sympathetic modulation was observed after the weight loss strategy. There were no differences in autonomic modulation parameters representing parasympathetic activity. Conclusions: The study provided evidence of a higher cardiovascular risk in athletes as a result of this rapid weight loss practice, which is very concerning since combat sports athletes repeat this process several times during their lives. Level of Evidence IV; Study type: Case series.

Multilevel Evaluation of Rapid Weight Loss in Wrestling and Taekwondo

“…It is documented that the practices of RWL strategies at an early age have a negative impact on the growth and development of the athlete, hormonal imbalance, increased risk of injury due to bone reduction and may also present a higher risk of weight management-related problems throughout their lives (Roemmich and Sinning, 1997;Kowatari et al, 2001;Prouteau et al, 2006;Green et al, 2007;Artioli et al, 2010b;Reljic et al, 2016;Nascimento-Carvalho et al, 2018). Therefore, it is important to start with actions at an early age for the development of athletes taking care of their health and sport performance.…”

“…In this regards, one study has reported that competitive success is positively associated with RWL (Reale et al, 2016a), however, most studies have reported that the success is mainly due to years of experience of the athlete (Hall and Lane, 2001;Artioli et al, 2010c;Kazemi et al, 2011;Brito et al, 2012;Franchini et al, 2012;Zubac et al, 2017;Reale et al, 2018) and not the amount of weight he/she has lost and the recovery, prior to weigh-in and prior to competition, respectively. The truth is that the weight control strategies often employed are at the expense of health and sport performance (Kowatari et al, 2001;Alderman et al, 2004;Degoutte et al, 2006;Prouteau et al, 2006;Green et al, 2007;Artioli et al, 2010b;Pettersson et al, 2013;Reljic et al, 2016;Nascimento-Carvalho et al, 2018). There is variability in the prevalence, methods and magnitude of weight loss, as well as recovery post RWL, among sport disciplines.…”

“…Side effects have also been reported from the use of short-term RWL strategies (that is, they affect the health of the athlete during the weight reduction period) presenting negative emotions (Degoutte et al, 2006) and sensations such as muscle fatigue, and/or symptoms of weakness, muscle pain and/or myalgia and depression (Kordi et al, 2011;Zubac et al, 2017). A long-term effect is that athletes experience higher rates of obesity later in life (Saarni et al, 2006), problems of anxiety, perfectionism and eating disorders (more studied in women), and irregular menstruation in women (Filaire et al, 2007;Rouveix et al, 2007;Escobar-Molina et al, 2015) due to reduced baseline metabolic rate, making weight maintenance difficult (Nascimento-Carvalho et al, 2018).…”

“…Alterations in the growth of athletes and hormonal imbalance (Reljic et al, 2016), as well as cognitive functions have also been reported (Nascimento-Carvalho et al, 2018). Considering the negative physical, emotional, and psychological effects of RWL, presumably it affects sports performance negatively, however, there are few studies measuring the effect of RWL on sport performance.…”

Analysis of the physical development and somatotype of girls and females involved into dancing and gymnastic sports

“…This correlates with the available literary data. The results obtained by Nascimento-Carvalho et al [32] confirmed the perspective of applying the bioimpedance method for assessing the athletes' preparedness in martial arts.…”