Acute resistance exercise attenuates fasting and postprandial triglyceridemia in women by reducing triglyceride concentrations in triglyceride-rich lipoproteins

A single bout of endurance exercise lowers fasting and postprandial triglyceride (TG) concentrations in both men and women, by reducing TG in triglyceride-rich lipoproteins (TRLs). The effect of resistance exercise on TRL-TG metabolism is not known; previous studies only measured total plasma TG concentrations and provide conflicting results. Furthermore, none has specifically examined women. We therefore sought to evaluate the effect of a single bout of resistance exercise on TRL-TG metabolism in women. We measured the concentrations of TG in total plasma and TRLs in the fasting state and during an oral fat tolerance test in five healthy untrained women (age: 32 ± 5 years; body mass index: 21.5 ± 1.7 kg/m²; peak oxygen consumption: 31 ± 4 mL/kg min) in the morning, on two separate occasions: once after a single ~95-min bout of moderate-intensity whole-body resistance exercise (energy expenditure: 2.9 ± 0.1 MJ) and once after an equivalent period of rest, on the preceding afternoon. Fasting plasma TG and TRL-TG concentrations were 22 ± 12 and 40 ± 21% lower, respectively, and postprandial plasma TG and TRL-TG areas-under-the-curve were 24 ± 13 and 27 ± 10% lower, respectively, after exercise than rest (all P values <0.05). Effect sizes ranged from -0.52 to -0.90. Non-TRL-TG concentrations in the fasting and postprandial states were not different between trials (P > 0.60). We conclude that a single bout of resistance exercise attenuates fasting and postprandial triglyceridemia in women by reducing TRL-TG concentrations.