Postprandial lipemia and chylomicron clearance in athletes and in sedentary men

To examine the effects of exercise on postprandial serum triglyceride (TG) metabolism, we measured oral and intravenous fat tolerance and chylomicron-TG half-life in highly trained endurance athletes and in a sedentary control group matched for body weight and fasting serum TG concentration. Postprandial lipemia was lower in athletes after meals containing 40 g fat (1.5 ± 0.7 vs 2.6 ± 1.5 mmol·L^-1·8 h^-1, p < 0.001) or 140 g fat (2.5 ± 1.2 vs 6.1 ± 1.9 mmol·L^-1·8 h^-1, p < 0.001). The disappearance of an intravenous bolus of Intralipid® was faster in athletes (5.4 ± 1.2%/min) than in sedentary men (4.3 ± 0.8%/min, p < 0.01). The half-life of chylomicron-TG was shorter in athletes (3.0 ± 0.8 min) than in sedentary men (4.0 ± 1.0 min, p < 0.05). These findings indicate that chronic exercise decreases postprandial lipemia by reducing chylomicron-TG's half-life. This effect is due partly to reduced fasting serum TG pool size and partly to a direct effect of exercise on the serum TG removal system.