The relationships among leisure time activities, maximum oxygen consumption, lipid levels and percentage body fat in a group of sedentary office workers.

Relationships between leisure-time physical activity, maximum oxygen consumption (VMO2) lipid levels, blood pressure, and percent body fat were investigated in 50 sedentary mail office workers. Physical fitness, as evaluated by the Fisher-Fairbanks Walking Test showed a small, but statistically significant positive correlation with High Density Lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol (r=.33). Total Activity Metabolic Index also demonstrated a small but statistically significant correlation with HDL cholesterol (r=.20). Body composition may reflect to an extent, level or regular physical activity or fitness, since caloric expenditure is a determinant of fat deposition in or removal adipose tissue. Maximum VO2 showed a negative correlation with percent body fat (r=-.35). In the multivariate analysis, knowledge of cholesterol, VLDL, diastolic pressure of total Activity Metabolic Index (AMI) added no prediction beyond VO2, HDL and VLDL (r=.085) for determining placement in physical fitness categories.