INS and Insulin resistance: In the present study, a few participants may have insulin resistance at baseline indicated by higher fasting insulin and HOMA-IR levels (despite no agreement on the cut-offs, fasting insulin > 8 mIU/L and HOMA-IR > 2 are suggested as two symptoms of insulin resistance by some researchers [35,36]), and most of them (~80%) were from the subgroup of those with overweight or obesity.