Response to Comment Letter: Muscle Metabolomics and Exercise Effects on Cardiometabolic Risk.

We appreciate Dr. Astrada's interest in our recent article (1). Although he raised concern around using BMI as a screening parameter for our study, BMI was not the only "defining parameter" screening criteria in our study. Fasting glucose > 110mg/dL was also a critical exclusion criterion for the study which limits variation in metabolic characteristics in our study cohort. These and other criteria for participation in the study were reported in the original manuscript (2) from which the samples in our current study (1) were obtained. Furthermore, after participants were screened and included in the study, DEXA scans provide information on body composition, which we reported in the online supplemental material. Within a given age group, we found no differences in body composition (Fat %) between treatment groups at baseline. As for the participants' daily activities, we did not collect occupation information, but an exclusion criteria for the study was participation in regular exercise (>20 minutes more than twice per week), which was reported in the original manuscript (2). Thus, all participants were not regular exercisers, further limiting baseline metabolic variability.