Effect of Strenuous and Mild Pre-Meal Exercise on Postprandial Lipemia

An attempt was made to elucidate the mechanism whereby exercise facilitates postprandial lipid clearance. Two separate experiments examined the effects of mild and strenuous pre-meal exercise on postprandial lipemia among human male subjects. In each case, a high fat meal was consumed after a fasting blood sample was taken. Additional samples were drawn 3, 5, and 7 hr. following the meal on both a control and an experimental day. Optical density was employed as a measure of serum turbidity. Data were analyzed through analysis of variance. Strenuous pre-meal exercise appeared to hasten postprandial lipid clearance without affecting the magnitude of lipemia. Mild pre-meal exercise was seen to reduce the magnitude and duration of postprandial lipemia. These observations tend to negate the concept that exercise influences postprandial lipemia via digestive and/or absorptive mechanisms. It is hypothesized that gross differences in response to the high fat meal witnessed between the two experimental populations may be due to the variance in the mean ages of the groups.