the effect of hypocaloric diet enriched in legumes on anthropometric indices in women with central obesity

background: identifying new ways to decrease adiposity have great importance for human health. we aimed to find out whether l – arginine (arg) and selenium alone or together can increase the effect of hypocaloric diet enriched in legumes (hdel) on anthropometric measures in healthy women with central obesity. methods: this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial was undertaken in 84 healthy premenopausal women with central obesity. after 2 wk of run - in on an isocaloric diet, participants were randomly considered to eat hdel, arg (5 gr / d) and hdel, selenium (200 µg / d) and hdel or arg, selenium and hdel for 6 wk. the following variables were assessed before intervention and 3 and 6 wk after it: weight, waist circumference, hip circumference, waist to hip ratio (whr), body mass index (bmi), and fasting nitrite / nitrate (no x ) concentrations. other variables were assessed before and after intervention including: arm, thigh, calf and breast circumferences, subscapular, triceps, biceps and suprailiac skinfold thicknesses, sum of skinfold thicknesses (ssf), body density (d) and estimated percent of body fat (epf). findings: hdel showed a significant effect in reduction of waist, hip, arm, thigh, calf and breast circumferences, triceps, biceps, subscapular and suprailiac skinfold thicknesses, whr, ssf, d and epf. hdel + arg + selenium significantly reduced suprailiac skinfold thicknesses. hdel, arg, selenium and arg plus selenium had not significant effect on weight, bmi and fasting no x . conclusion: the study indicates that control diet with hdel + arg + selenium reduce suprailiac skinfold thicknesses which represents as reduction of abdominal obesity.