The role of physical activity, exercise and sleep on the cardiovascular and metabolic risk associated with overweight and obesity ; Importance de l'activité physique, de l'exercice musculaire et du sommeil sur le risque cardiovasculaire et métabolique de la personne en surpoids ou obèse

Obesity is a major public health issue and is associated with increased cardiovascular and metabolic morbidity. Recent studies underline the potential bidirectional association between sleep and obesity: sleep seems to contribute to the pathogenesis of obesity and obesity also appears to play an etiological role in the development of sleep disturbances, such as obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). Physical activity is an important modality for the treatment of obesity and OSA and can contribute to decreasing cardiovascular and metabolic risk factors. However, both obesity and OSA have been associated with exercise intolerance.In this thesis, we explored the relation between physical activity, exercise, obesity, sleep and associated cardiovascular and metabolic risk factors in overweight/obese adults with OSA and obese adolescents.We showed that physical activity is the major determinant for evening blood pressure in adults with OSA presenting high cardiovascular risk. We then explored the effects of OSA on cardiorespiratory fitness and lipid oxidation in non-obese adults with OSA. Accumulation of chest wall fat can increase ventilatory constraint during exercise and may contribute to exercise intolerance in obesity. Thus, we aimed to verify the role of ventilatory factors in obese adolescents' exercise tolerance. We chose this population because their cardiovascular and metabolic risk factors are not fully established therefore we could isolate the effects of ventilatory factors on exercise tolerance. Our results showed that obese adolescents breathed at lower lung volumes and presented ventilatory constraint during weight-bearing exercise (walking). Exercise training improved breathing strategy by restoring breathing at higher lung volumes and decreasing ventilatory constraint. We also confirmed the presence of cardiovascular and metabolic abnormalities (inflammation, oxidative stress, insulin-resistance) and altered sleep quality and quantity. Long-term maintenance of weight loss is difficult to achieve, thus we ...