3.1. Study and Control Group Characteristics
The study group consisted of 50 patients with a mean age of 60.8 ± 9.5 years, including 27 (54%) women. Overall, 24% were overweight (BMI > 25 kg/m2) and 70% were obese (BMI > 30 kg/m2). Average WHR was: 0.975. All subjects were diagnosed with type 2 diabetes mellitus (median glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c): 8.75%; average duration time is 10.5 years) and dyslipidemia. The concomitant diseases included hypertension (80%), chronic kidney disease (18%—all in stage G3a), hypothyroidism (14% everyone with normalized (thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) value) and heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (8%). For diabetes treatment, patients chronically received metformin (98%), sulfonylurea (44%), SGLT2 inhibitors (20%), dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP-4) inhibitors (8%) and insulin (28%). Full treatment data are available in the Table 1. The medications used by the patient were not changed during the intervention. At baseline, serum median levels of total cholesterol was 166.5 mg/mL, low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C) was 83 mg/dL, high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C) was: 49.5 mg/dL and triglycerides (TG) was 167.9 mg/dL. Mean levels of alanine transaminase (ALT) and aspartate transaminase (AST) were 34.4 U/L and 32.5 U/L respectively, and the median systolic blood pressure (SBP) was 135 mmHg. There were 18% active smokers and none of the patients abused alcohol. In total, 20 subjects (40%) met the World Health Organization (WHO) criteria for physical activity.
The control group consisted of 26 sex-matched patients with a mean age of 33.08 ± 5.45 years, including 13 (50%) women. Overall, 19% were overweight (BMI > 25 kg/m2) and no one was obese (BMI > 30 kg/m2). Average WHR was: 0.83. All subjects were not diagnosed with any concomitant diseases. Baseline characteristics and comparison of metabolic parameters between study and control group are presented in Tables 2 and 3.