Metabolic Inflexibility in Youth with Obesity: Is It a Feature of Obesity or Distinctive of Youth Who Are Metabolically Unhealthy?

Authors

Nour Y Gebara
Joon Young Kim
Fida Bacha
SoJung Lee
Silva Arslanian

Publication Date

4-1-2022

Journal

Clinical Obesity

DOI

10.1111/cob.12501

PMID

34851557

PMCID

PMC8904284

PubMedCentral® Posted Date

4-1-2023

PubMedCentral® Full Text Version

Author MSS

Published Open-Access

yes

Keywords

Adipose Tissue, Adolescent, Humans, Insulin, Insulin Resistance, Metabolic Syndrome, Obesity, Obesity, Metabolically Benign, Metabolic flexibility, Metabolic Health, Obesity, Insulin Sensitivity

Abstract

Individuals with obesity have metabolic inflexibility with diminished fasting fat oxidation and blunted increase in respiratory quotient (RQ) in insulin-stimulated states. However, it is unclear if metabolic inflexibility is a characteristic of obesity per se or is unique to youth who have metabolically unhealthy obesity (MUO) compared with metabolically healthy obesity (MHO). We investigated metabolic flexibility in youth with MUO, MHO and normal weight (NW) and compared their metabolic characteristics. Youth (n = 188) were divided, based on cut-off points for in vivo insulin sensitivity (IS) of adolescents with NW, into 137 with MUO and 51 with MHO. Fasting hepatic IS (HIS) from hepatic glucose production by [6,6-