Blood Lipid Levels as Influenced by Weight Reduction in Men

Blood lipid data are presented for twentyfour men while losing from 0.5 to 3.5 lb body weight per week. Twelve of these individuals, Group I, ranged from 31 to 68 years of age (average age 42 years); twelve other men, Group II, ranged from 19 to 28 years of age (average age 22 years). The men in Group I were not under rigid dietary control, but had diets prescribed for them which contained 80 g of fat per day. The subjects in Group II were under rigid dietary control. Their daily intake of fat was 103 g for the initial and terminal three weeks periods and 50 g of fat daily during the middle three weeks period. The data as a whole revealed the rather logic and statistical differences of the groups. However, both Groups I and II showed different regression coefficients for blood lipids than did women losing weight, i.e., women showed a small increase in serum phospholipid and cholesterol per pound of weight lost, but both groups of men showed decreases with weight loss. While in the women there was no detectable linear relationship between weight change and serum total lipids (within individuals), in both groups of the men there were highly significant linear relationships. In the older men there was a decrease and in the younger men an increase in serum total lipids with weight loss. Even though regression analyses establish regression coefficients for men losing weight which are different from those for women losing weight, the resulting changes in the level of serum lipids appear to be of no physiologic importance.