The effect of early nutrition and activity levels on the development of obesity in rats

This investigation was undertaken to study the effects of feeding two levels of caloric density factorially with two levels of activity on the growth rate and body composition of male weanling pups from 25 to 67 days of age. The effects of ad libitum feeding the dams of these pups the same two diets during gestation and lactation on the growth rates and activity levels of these pups were also examined. Following weaning, the pups in both Studies A and B, were placed by weight in outcome groups of four each. The pups in each outcome group were then randomly assigned to one of the following four treatments: I - high-fat diet, spontaneous exercise; II - high-fat diet, restricted exercise; III - chow diet, spontaneous exercise; IV - chow diet, restricted exercise. The pups whose dams were given the 60% fat ration during gestation and lactation (B) attained a higher weaning weight (73 g) than the pups of the dams fed a 4.5% fat ration (Purina Chow) during gestation and lactation - A (55 g). The final body dimensions (length and width) did not appear to be different (Tables IV and V). Pups in Study B tended to run considerably more meters per day than the pups in Study A although the differences were uncertain because of the wide variation. The final body weights attained were greater for the pups in Study B than the pups in Study A except for treatment I. Except for treatment I, the Except for treatment I, the order of the weight gains within treatments among experiments was comparable. It appeared that the differences in final body weight attained could be attributed to the initial differences present at weaning which reflected the dietary treatments of the dams during gestation and lactation. The difference of treatment I in Study B from the trends exhibited by the other three treatments, was manifest by the lower final body weight attained (246.25 ± 9 g) and the lower total weight gain (170.77 ± 8 g) of Study A. The animals in Study B all consumed a greater number of kcal per day than the animals in the corresponding treatments in Study A. The differences in feed consumption between the two experiments appeared to be significant only for those animals receiving the 60%-fat diet.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Human Nutrition and Foods

Department dc:contributor.department

Human Nutrition and Foods

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

1973

Author dc:creator

• Bazzarre, Terry Lee

Chair dc:contributor.committeechair

• Thye, Forrest W.

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Polan, Carl E.
• Abernathy, Richard Paul

• diet
• Exercise

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Dc Identifier Other

etd-10132010-020026

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/45152