Elisa Merchán Ramírez

• PhD
• PhD Student at University of Granada

The optimal eating window for time-restricted eating (TRE) remains unclear, particularly its impact on visceral adipose tissue (VAT), which is associated with cardiometabolic morbidity and mortality. We investigated the effects of three TRE schedules (8 h windows in the early day, late day and participant-chosen times) combined with usual care (UC,...

Background and aims: The prevalence of paediatric obesity has increased in recent decades. The efficacy of the primary approach based on improving dietary habits and increasing physical activity is limited. Therefore, and given the growing interest in new nutritional strategies such as time-restricted eating (TRE), this study aimed to investigate t...

Objetivos. La restricción temporal de la ingesta de alimentos (TRE) es actualmente objeto de estudio como una estrategia nutricional prometedora para combatir la obesidad y prevenir el riesgo cardio-metabólico en adultos. Sin embargo, su eficacia en población pediátrica aún es desconocida. El objetivo de este estudio fue evaluar los efectos de una...

Objetivos. La restricción horaria de la ingesta de alimentos (TRE por sus siglas en inglés) se está estudiando como una prometedora estrategia nutricional para el tratamiento de la obesidad en población adulta. A pesar de su potencial en la disminución del riesgo cardio-metabólico, resulta necesario explorar sus beneficios y riesgos antes de consid...

La restricción temporal de la ingesta de alimentos (TRE) está siendo estudiada como una prometedora estrategia nutricional para el tratamiento de la obesidad en adultos. Sin embargo, su eficacia en población pediátrica aún es desconocida. Este estudio tuvo como objetivo evaluar el efecto de una intervención de TRE de 8 semanas sobre el peso y la co...

Neck adipose tissue (NAT) accumulation and neck circumference are independent predictors of cardiometabolic risk (CMR) and low-grade chronic inflammation in young adults. The present study examines whether a 24-week concurrent exercise intervention can reduce NAT volume and neck circumference in young adults, and whether any changes in these variab...

Background and aims: Accomplishing a high day-to-day reproducibility is important to detect changes in resting metabolic rate (RMR) and respiratory exchange ratio (RER) that may be produced after an intervention or for monitoring patients' metabolism over time. We aimed to analyze: (i) the influence of different methods for selecting indirect calo...

Purpose To investigate the association of meal timing with body composition and cardiometabolic risk factors in young adults. Methods In this cross-sectional study participated 118 young adults (82 women; 22 ± 2 years old; BMI: 25.1 ± 4.6 kg/m²). Meal timing was determined via three non-consecutive 24-h dietary recalls. Sleep outcomes were objecti...

Purpose The present work examines the associations of dietary habits, sedentarism, physical activity (PA) levels and sleep habits, with thyroid function in young euthyroid adults. Methods A total of 105 young euthyroid adults participated in this cross-sectional study. Thyroid function was determined in fasting conditions (> 6 h). Dietary habits w...

Background: Prior evidence suggests that capsinoids ingestion may increase resting energy expenditure (EE) and fat oxidation (FATox), yet whether they can modulate those parameters during exercise conditions remains poorly understood. We hypothesized that dihydrocapsiate (DHC) ingestion would increase EE and specifically FATox during an acute bout...

Exercise modulates both brown adipose tissue (BAT) metabolism and white adipose tissue (WAT) browning in murine models. Whether this is true in humans, however, has remained unknown. An unblinded randomized controlled trial (ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT02365129) was therefore conducted to study the effects of a 24-week supervised exercise interventio...

Thyroid dysfunction is associated with classic cardiometabolic risk factors in humans. However, this relationship remains unclear in young euthyroid adults. The present work examines the associations of circulating thyroid hormones (THs) and thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) concentrations with body composition and cardiometabolic risk factors in y...

Background & aims The validity of most commercially available metabolic cart is mostly unknown. Thus, we aimed to determine the accuracy, precision, within-subject reproducibility, and concordance of RMR and RER measured by four commercially available metabolic carts [Cosmed Q-NRG, Vyaire Vyntus CPX, Maastricht Instruments Omnical, and Medgraphics...

Objectives To investigate the feasibility and acceptability of three different 8h time-restricted eating (TRE) schedules (i.e., early TRE, late TRE, and self-selected TRE) over 4 weeks in adults with overweight/obesity from southern Spain. Methods A total of 22 adults with overweight/obesity and a baseline eating window ≥12h (13 women; 48 ± 10 yea...

Purpose: Thyroid hormones (THs) are important mediators of brown adipose tissue (BAT) differentiation. However, the association of TH concentrations with human BAT is unclear. The present work examines the associations between circulating thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) and THs concentrations (i.e. free tri-iodothyronine, FT3, and free thyroxine,...

Objectives Neck adipose tissue (NAT) volume increases with general adiposity, with fat accumulating in different neck tissue compartments. In patients with certain malignant/benign tumours, the accumulation of NAT, and certain NAT distributions, have been associated with cardiometabolic risk (CMR). However, it is unknown whether the same relationsh...

The role of lifestyle behaviors on neck adipose tissue (NAT), a fat depot that appears to be involved in the pathogenesis of different cardiometabolic diseases and in inflammatory status, is unknown. In this cross-sectional and exploratory study, the authors examined the relationship between sedentary time and physical activity (PA) with neck adipo...

Background and aims To study the relationships between different dietary factors (i.e., energy, macronutrient and fatty acid intake, food group consumption, and dietary pattern) and basal fat oxidation (BFox) and maximal fat oxidation during exercise (MFO) in sedentary adults. Method and Resulss A total of 212 (n=130 women; 32.4±15.1 years) sedent...

Objective: This study aimed to describe the energy expenditure (EE) and macronutrient oxidation response to an individualized nonshivering cold exposure in young healthy adults. Methods: Two different groups of 44 (study 1: 22.1 [SD 2.1] years old, 25.6 [SD 5.2] kg/m2 , 34% men) and 13 young healthy adults (study 2: 25.6 [SD 3.0] years old, 23.6...

Objective To study the association between usual dietary factors (dietary energy density, nutrient intake, food group consumption, and dietary pattern) and brown adipose tissue (BAT) volume/18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG) uptake after personalized cold exposure in young healthy adults. Methods A total of 122 young adults (n=82 women; 22.0±2.1 yea...

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0217029.].

The time spent in sedentary behaviour represents an important public health burden. To reduce sedentary time in the general population, the simplest, most effective, and most accessible method is to decrease lying and sitting time. We aimed to compare differences on energy expenditure (EE) across lying, sitting, and standing positions; and to analy...

This study examined (1) the association of dietary energy density from solid (ED S ) and solid plus liquids (ED SL ) with adiposity and cardiometabolic risk factors (CRF) in children with overweight and obesity, (2) the effect of under-reporting on the mentioned associations and (3) whether the association between ED and body composition and CRF is...

Having valid and reliable resting energy expenditure (REE) estimations is crucial to establish reachable goals for dietary and exercise interventions. However, most of the REE predictive equations were developed some time ago and, as the body composition of the current population has changed, it is highly relevant to assess the validity of REE pred...

Purpose Human BAT has gained considerable attention as a potential therapeutic target for obesity and type 2 diabetes. However, whether physical activity (PA) might be an efficient stimulus to activate and recruit brown adipose tissue (BAT) remains to be ascertained. We aimed to examine whether objectively measured PA levels were associated with BA...

The objective of the present cross-sectional study was to examine the associations of physical activity and the adherence to the Mediterranean dietary pattern (MDP) with bone mineral content (BMC) and density (BMD) in children with overweight and obesity. A total of 177 (n = 80 girls) children with overweight and obesity aged 8 to 12 years old part...

There is a general belief that having breakfast is an important healthy lifestyle factor; however, there is scarce evidence on the influence of breakfast quality and energy density on cardiometabolic risk in children, as well as on the role of physical activity in this association. The aims of this paper were (i) to examine the associations of brea...

Background & aim: The thermic effect of food (TEF) refers to the increase of the metabolic rate and body temperature in response to a single meal. To date, most of the studies have focused to determine the TEF in terms of energy expenditure, but little is known about which is the response in terms of skin temperature. The aim of this study was to...

Background & aims: Achieving high inter-day reliability is a key factor to analyze the magnitude of change in RMR, for instance after an intervention. The aims of this study were: i) to determine the congruent validity of RMR and respiratory quotient (RQ) with two breath by breath commercially available metabolic carts [CCM Express (CCM) and Ultim...