The Effect of Fasting Month of Ramadan on the Abdominal Fat Distribution: Assessment by Computed Tomography

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate the changes in abdominal fat distribution in the fasting month of Ramadan. Thirty-eight healthy volunteers (17 women and 21 men) who fasted in the month of Ramadan in 2002 were included in this prospective study. Waist, hip and thigh circumferences, weight and height of all subjects were measured. Waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), waist-to-thigh ratio (WTR) and body mass index (BMI) were calculated for each subject. For assessing the fat distribution in the abdomen, computed tomography (CT) was performed. Both subcutaneous and visceral fat areas were calculated by the CT scanning technique. All of the calculations were done before (first measurement) and after (second measurement) Ramadan fasting and the changes were evaluated. No statistically significant differences were found in all subjects between the first and second measurements, which include total, subcutaneous and visceral fat areas, waist, hip and thigh circumferences, weight, BMI, WHR, and WTR (p > 0.05). In females and the individuals in their twenties, there was a significant decrease in visceral fat area (p < 0.05). Despite of the general opinion that supposes the change of weight during the fasting month of Ramadan, there were no significant differences in weight and abdominal fat distribution. However in female and young individuals, there was a reduction in visceral fat compartment. This could be due to fat redistribution, because they have more physical activity than males and older individuals. computed tomography; fat; abdomen

Islamic fasting and weight loss: a systematic review and meta-analysis

“…1 Flowchart showing the selection of studies included in the present systematic review of Ramadan fasting effects on body weight (*two studies reported the effects of Ramadan fasting in healthy and obese subjects, and in healthy and diabetic subjects) Table 1 provides detailed information on the studies used in the meta-analysis (3,(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20) and descriptive statistics of their characteristics. The average number of subjects per study was 35?8 (SD 27?9) and the subjects' average age was 29?4 (SD 6?4) years old.…”

“…There are studies that reported a definite loss of body weight or body fat during Ramadan (7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13) ; while there are as many studies that showed either no significant loss of body weight (14)(15)(16)(17) or a slight increase in body weight during or after Ramadan (3,(18)(19)(20) .…”

Unexpected changes in blood pressure and hematological parameters among fasting and nonfasting workers during Ramadan in Indonesia

“…The majority of Indonesian people are Muslims, who are obliged to fast (total abstinence from food and drink) for as long as 14 h (from 0330 to 1730) each day for a month. Many studies have been conducted to evaluate the impact of Ramadan fasting on various aspects of health, including lipid metabolism (Fedail et al, 1982;El Arnoaty and Johnson, 1991;Adlouni et al, 1997), acute coronary heart disease and respiratory system (Temizhan et al, 1999;Ramadan and Barac-Nieto, 2000), water balance (Duncan et al, 1990;Schmahl and Metzler, 1991;Leiper et al, 2003;Basiri et al, 2004), dietary intake, endocrine function, serum fructosamine, and clinical, anthropometrical, and most biological parameters (Habbal et al, 1998;Perk et al, 2001;Beltaifa et al, 2002;Ramadan, 2002;Gharbi et al, 2003;Gustaviani et al, 2004;Kassab et al, 2004;Yucel et al, 2004).…”

“…First, all of these studies focused exclusively on fasters (Fedail et al, 1982;Frost and Pirani, 1987;Hussain et al, 1987;Hallak and Nomani, 1988;Ch'ng et al, 1989;Iraki et al, 1997;Bigard et al, 1998;Perk et al, 2001;Beltaifa et al, 2002;Ramadan, 2002;Roky et al, 2004) and neglected nonfasters, who constitute an important control group. Second, because blood sampling during fasting is often regarded as intrusive, many of these studies were conducted with small sample sizes, and some studies involved gender-mixed sampling (Hussain et al, 1987;Habbal et al, 1998) or sampling after Ramadan rather than during Ramadan (Yucel et al, 2004). All of these features could produce substantial variability in the results.…”

Effects of Ramadan fasting on body weight and metabolic profile

“…Since Ramadan month is according to the lunar http://dx.doi.org/10.15218/zjms.2014.0039 817 positive effects on the body. 2 The following parameters go down during fasting: serum lipids, 3 blood sugar, 4 blood pressure (BP) 5 and body weight. 6 This study sought to investigate the effects of Ramadan fasting during summer time on the body physiology particularly in terms of body weight, blood sugar, serum lipids and BP.…”