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Randomized Controlled Trial
. 2012 Dec;43(6):629-35.
doi: 10.1016/j.amepre.2012.08.024.

Exercise training and habitual physical activity: a randomized controlled trial

Damon L Swift  1 , Neil M Johannsen, Catrine Tudor-Locke, Conrad P Earnest, William D Johnson, Steven N Blair, Martin Sénéchal, Timothy S Church
Affiliations
Randomized Controlled Trial

Exercise training and habitual physical activity: a randomized controlled trial

Damon L Swift et al. Am J Prev Med. 2012 Dec.

Abstract

Background: Exercise training reduces adiposity and risk of cardiovascular disease. However, the combined effects of habitual free-living physical activity and aerobic training on waist circumference, weight, fitness, and blood pressure in postmenopausal women are unknown.

Purpose: To evaluate the effects of habitual physical activity levels during aerobic training on weight, waist circumference, fitness, and blood pressure.

Design: Secondary analysis of an RCT. Original data collected April 2001 to June 2005 and analyzed in 2012.

Setting/participants: Postmenopausal women in a supervised exercise trial.

Intervention: Women (n=325) were randomized to 4, 8, or 12 kcal/kg per week of aerobic training or a control group for 6 months. All outcome measures were collected at baseline and follow-up. Changes in dependent variables within each training group were evaluated across tertiles of pedometer-determined habitual physical activity outside exercise training sessions.

Main outcome measures: Changes in waist circumference and weight.

Results: Reductions in waist circumference were significantly greater with higher steps/day accumulated outside exercise training compared to lower levels in the 4 (high: -4.8 cm vs low: -1.4 cm, p=0.03); 8 (high: -4.2 cm vs low: -0.4 cm, p=0.03), and 12 kcal/kg per week groups (high: -4.1 cm vs low: -0.7 cm, p=0.05). For all groups, p-trend≤0.03. A trend was observed for greater weight reduction with higher steps/day in the 4 kcal/kg per week group (p-trend=0.04) but not for the other exercise doses. No effects were observed for blood pressure or fitness measures (all p>0.05).

Conclusions: In postmenopausal women, higher habitual physical activity while participating in aerobic training was associated with greater reductions in central adiposity, and was supportive of weight loss compared to lower levels.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Change in anthropometric, fitness and blood pressure across tertiles of habitual physical activity following training CON, control; KKW, kcal per kg per week
Figure 2
Figure 2
Change in anthropometric, fitness and blood pressure across tertiles of habitual physical activity following training with dose of exercise entered as a covariate (n=253)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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