All participants in the exercise groups underwenta 12-wk supervised aerobic
exercise program three times per week, lasting 45 min each time according to
pre-established heart rate (65%–75% of their HR max). Each session was super-
vised by one researcher in a municipal sport center. The participants wore a
portable heart rate monitor (Polar RS400, Finland) and heart rate was recorded
every 5 min to check exercise intensity. Each session consisted of 5-minwarm-up
and stretching, followedby45 min of aerobicrunning and finally5 min at the end
for stretching.
Groups 1 and 3 were given precise instructions on how to follow a diet that
maintained their caloric and nutrient intakes but significantly reduced AGE
content; the latter was achieved mostly by changing cooking methods in food
preparation to avoid exposure to dry heat such as frying, broiling, grilling, and
roasting and to favor cooking with lower temperatures and high-water, content
as in stewing and poaching, as previously described [22]. The second group
continued consuming their habitual meals. The energy and nutrient consump-
tion was calculated with the program Nutrikcal (University of Monterrey,
M ? exico) and AGE intake was calculated from a database of w560 foods that listed
AGE values and expressed as AGE kU/d [23].
Of the initial 75 participants, only 43 completed the intervention (15 in the
diet plus exercise group, 14 in the exercise group, and 14 in the diet group). The
remainder of the participants were excluded because of lack of adherence with
the diet or exercise (attendance to