20^th Global Obesity Meeting

Biography

Biography: Eun Jung Choi

Abstract

Obesity is one of the leading preventable causes of death worldwide and the biggest concern of public health. To the best of our knowledge, no randomized controlled trials (RCT) evaluating the effect of EMS on obesity or regional fat distribution have been performed. We hypothesized that EMS is an effective and safe treatment of man and woman with abdominal obesity so that EMS decrease WC or abdominal fat, increase abdominal muscle mass and improve biochemical markers. Therefore, we designed first RCT study to investigate EMS efficacy for 12-week program by comparing it with transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS). EMS group had a 5.1 ± 2.8cm decreased in WC while TENS group showed a 2.9 ± 3.3cm loss in WC after 12 weeks. In EMS group, WC declined more sharply in the latter half then in the first half of the study. Furthermore, when dividing participants in subgroups according to the degree of WC loss (less than 2 cm, 2 cm to 4 cm, and more than 4 cm), 70.0% of EMS group lost 4 cm more off of their WC while 46.7% of TENS group lost lesser than 2 cm of their WC. There was no difference between EMS and TENS in self-rated satisfaction scores at week 1  but there was significant difference at week 12 (3.3±0.7 vs. 3.7±0.7 p <0.05). In abdominal fat distribution and other metabolic and biochemical characteristics,  there were no differences between EMS and TENS groups throughout 12 weeks. However, fasting FFA levels were significantly higher in EMS than TENS group at week 12. All participants completed the protocol without adverse symptoms. No changes in CK, LDH, AST, ALT, and Cr were observed in both groups during the experimental period. Therefore, 12-week program of EMS significantly reduced the waist in abdominal obese adults with out side effects. Therefore EMS is an effective and safe treatment of man and woman with abdominal obesity.