The continued increase in obesity statistics is the result of environmental factors associated with the consumption of foods high in saturated fat. The objective of the work was to evaluate the effect of a high fat diet on food parameters and visceral white adipose tissue. in Male Sprague Dawley rats (n = 10) were used, divided into two experimental groups, the control group received conventional diet (DC) and the experimental group a high fat diet (HFD), for 10 weeks. Body weight, food intake, food conversion and adipose tissue characteristics were determined. Data analysis was performed using IBM SPSS version 21 software; after evaluating the normality of the data, parametric T tests were applied for independent samples and two-way ANOVA for repeated measurements in one of the factors, with Bonferroni adjustment. It was observed that the average weight was higher in animals fed with HFD, without statistical difference with respect to DC, however, there were significant differences in the weight of rats fed with HFD at different times of the protocol, specifically weeks 1.5 and 10 (p <0.001). Food intake was higher in animals fed DC (p <0.005), however the energy consumption was higher in those fed with HFD (p=0.016), which resulted in a higher feed conversion (p <0.005). The average theoretical diameter calculated for adipocytes is statistically higher in the HFD group (p <0.005), which is related to the classical hypertrophy generated after a period of feeding with high fat content. In conclusion, the protocol allows us to establish that, given the higher energy density, HFD induces adipocyte hypertrophy, a characteristic in the obesity process.
KEY WORDS Adipose tissue; Obesity; Diet.
