A Minimal Contact Diet and Physical Activity Intervention for White-Collar Workers

Minimal contact lifestyle interventions with multiple components coupled with health screening have the potential to improve worker health. The purpose of this study was to test a minimal contact multiple component lifestyle diet and exercise intervention. The multiple components that were included in this project included a worksite health screening, brief counseling session, emailed newsletter, and a pedometer. In response to the intervention, participants reported an increase in green salad, fruit, and vegetable consumption as well as an increase in self-efficacy for consuming three servings of fruits and vegetables a day. Study participants also demonstrated a significant increase in physical activity as shown by their responses to the question, “During leisure time I walk.” A minimal contact multiple component worksite health promotion program with relatively high feasibility and low cost can improve workers’ health-related behaviors, and participants can become more aware of their health

Promoting Healthful Diets and Exercise: Efficacy of a 12-Week After-School Program in Urban African Americans

This study examined the effectiveness of a unique extracurricular after-school initiative designed to promote healthy diets and exercise in urban African Americans. The Students and Parents Actively Involved in Being Fit after-school program was offered for 12 weeks to students and their parents/guardians at an urban middle school. Specific aims of the intervention were to increase participants’ vegetable and fruit intake by using established 5 A Day for Better Health educational resource materials/activities and to affect their health-related fitness through dance, games, and fitness activities. Fifty-six children and 25 parents/guardians completed a standard battery of evaluations before and after the program. Pre-post pairwise t test revealed that both children and their parents/guardians showed an increase in fruit consumption and a reduction in diastolic blood pressure (P

Self-Reported Energy Intake and Energy Expenditure in Elderly Women

The elderly are a growing population; however, limited information concerning energy requirements of the elderly is available. Dietary intake data have been collected in research and clinical settings to determine the intakes of energy and nutrients, but the accuracy of dietary intake data has been difficult to verify. Studies using doubly labeled water have suggested that dietary energy intake is underreported by obese subjects (1), adolescents (2), and athletes (3). Diet records were collected for 6 to 14 days in these studies (1), (2), (3). Elderly subjects have also underreported energy intake compared with total energy expenditure (TEE), either measured (4), (5), (6) or predicted (7). However, these studies only collected dietary data for 3 or 4 days, while energy expenditure was measured for 10 to 14 days using doubly labeled water. It is generally accepted that a major source of random variation in dietary energy can be ascribed to a person\u27s day-to-day variation in energy consumption, which averages 20% to 30% (8). This random variation decreases as the square root of the number of study days increases, such that it is approximately 10% for a 7-day record (9). Thus, some of the variability in self-reported energy intake may be attributable to the limited number of observations taken in previous studies of elderly women. To our knowledge, a comparison of TEE using doubly labeled water and concurrent diet records for a full week for elderly women has not been reported previously. The purpose of our study was to determine whether a complete recording of dietary intake would improve the accuracy of and reduce the individual variation in self-reported dietary energy intake compared with energy expenditure measurements using doubly labeled water

Resting Energy Expenditure and Delayed-Onset Muscle Soreness After Full-Body Resistance Training with an Eccentric Concentration

The purpose of this investigation was to determine the effect of an acute bout of high-volume, full-body resistance training with an eccentric concentration on resting energy expenditure (REE) and indicators of delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS). Eight resistance trained (RT) and eight untrained (UT) participants (mean: age = 23.5 years; height = 180.76 cm; weight = 87.58 kg; body fat = 19.34%; lean mass = 68.71 kg) were measured on four consecutive mornings for REE and indicators of DOMS: creatine kinase (CK) and rating of perceived muscle soreness (RPMS). Delayed-onset muscle soreness was induced by performing eight exercises, eight sets, and six repetitions using a 1-second concentric and 3-second eccentric muscle action duration. A two-factor repeated-measures analysis of variance revealed that REE was significantly (p \u3c 0.05) elevated at 24, 48, and 72 hours post compared with baseline measures for both UT and RT groups. Ratings of perceived muscle soreness were significantly elevated within groups for UT and RT at 24 and 48 hours post and for UT only at 72 hours post compared with baseline (p \u3c 0.05). Nonparametric analyses revealed that CK was significantly increased at 24 hours post for both UT and RT and at 48 and 72 hours post for UT only compared with baseline (p \u3c 0.05). Resting energy expenditure and indicators of DOMS were higher in UT compared with RT on all measures, but no significant differences were determined. The main finding of this investigation is that full-body resistance training with an eccentric concentration significantly increased REE up to 72 hours postexercise in UT and RT participants

Post‐Exercise Substrate Utilization after a High Glucose vs. High Fructose Meal During Negative Energy Balance in the Obese

Objective: To assess the effects of negative energy balance on the metabolic response of a meal containing either glucose or fructose as the primary source of carbohydrate after exercise in obese individuals in energy balance, or negative energy balance. Research Methods and Procedures: Fourteen adults with mean body mass index (BMI) 30.3 ± 1 kg/m2, age 26 ± 2 years, and weight 93.5 ± 5.4 kg, adhered to an energy‐balanced (EB) or a negative energy‐balanced (NEB) diet for 6 days. On Day 7, subjects exercised at 70% VO2peak for 40 minutes then consumed either high glucose (50 g of glucose, HG) or high fructose (50 g of fructose, HF) liquid meal. Substrate utilization was measured by indirect calorimetry for 3 hours. Blood samples were collected before exercise and 0, 30, 60, 120, and 180 minutes after consuming the meal. Results: The HG produced 15.9% greater glycemic (p \u3c 0.05) and 30.9% larger insulinemic (p \u3c 0.05) responses than the HF under both EB and NEB conditions. After the NEB diet, carbohydrate and fat oxidation did not differ for HG and HF. In contrast, carbohydrate oxidation increased 31%, and fat oxidation decreased 39% with HF compared with HG after the EB diet. Thus, HF and HG consumed after exercise produced marked differences in macronutrient oxidation when obese subjects followed an EB diet, but no difference when adhering to a NEB diet. Discussion: The data suggest that the use of fructose in supplements/meals may provide no additional benefit in terms of substrate utilization during a weight loss program involving diet and exercise

Dietary Intake and Energy Expenditure of Female Collegiate Swimmers During Decreased Training Prior to Competition

Swimmers, like all athletes, require a well-balanced diet with adequate energy intake for normal daily activities and the demands of training and competition. Investigators have typically studied nutritional status of athletes during heavy or peak training (1), (2). These studies generally show low levels of energy intake relative to expenditure, and carbohydrate intake also well below recommendations. However, several studies of the effects of exercise on energy intake have shown that as exercise energy expenditure increases or decreases, dietary intake tends to remain the same (3), (4), (5). Because training volume varies with the competitive season, it is important to investigate dietary intake at different levels of training. One period of training during which nutritional intake has not been studied is during taper, a period of decreased training before an athletic event to improve mental and physical readiness for competition (6). An important issue during this period is whether the discrepancy between energy intake and expenditure previously reported during heavy training is maintained during a period of reduced training. Another consideration is the number of reduced-fat food products consumed by female athletes. (In recent years, there has been an overwhelming increase in the availability of low-fat and fat-free food products.) Increased use of these foods may contribute to the increased carbohydrate intake observed in some recent studies of female athletes (7), (8), (9), which contrasts with earlier studies suggesting that carbohydrate intakes of female endurance athletes are 14% to 24% lower than recommended (1)

Blood Flow Improvement Trial: Design and Enrollment Developing Topics

Background Midlife insulin resistance (IR) has previously been shown to be associated with lower cerebral blood flow (CBF), and is a potentially modifiable risk factor for dementia. The Blood Flow Improvement Trial (BFiT), NCT03117829 , tested a 12 week carbohydrate restricted diet (CRD) and exercise behavioral intervention to reverse IR, and aimed to 1) determine the extent to which improving or normalizing glucose homeostasis improves CBF and cognitive function in individuals with IR, 2) determine whether participants continue to maintain improved or normalized glycemic control for 6 months, and 3) determine changes in the human metabolome as individuals improve or normalize IR and glucose homeostasis through diet and exercise. Method Participants were recruited from the Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center and screened for metabolic risk factor eligibility based on the criteria shown in Table 1. The design involved a 12 week diet and exercise intervention focused on self‐monitoring to promote adherence. Exercise was conducted in a supervised group setting 3 days/week for 50 minutes and participants were instructed to exercise on their own an additional 2 days/week. Participants followed a CRD and monitored their own blood glucose with the goal of achieving and maintaining fasting blood glucose/dL. Participants underwent baseline, 12 week, and 6 month procedures including urine and blood labs/metabolomics, cognitive testing, fitness testing, and blood flow imaging via MRI (Table 2). Result The enrollment goal was 40 participants. 118 individuals were screened for eligibility, and 72.5% of the target enrollment was met; of those participants, nearly 80% completed the 12 week intervention. Of the 23 participants that completed the intervention, mean attendance was 70% for supervised exercise sessions and 81% for weekly behavioral coaching sessions. Figure 1 summarizes screening, enrollment, and procedure completion. Conclusion IR may be a modifiable risk factor for dementia. The BFiT pilot trial was designed to test the feasibility of exercise and CRD to reduce IR and improve brain blood flow in middle‐aged adults. Reasonable enrollment and completion N were achieved. Future analysis will center on barriers to enrollment and adherence, as well as analysis of the primary and secondary outcome measures

Adaptation of The Doubly Labeled Water Method for Subjects Consuming Isotopically Enriched Water

The use of doubly labeled water (DLW) to measure energy expenditure is subject to error if the background abundance of the oxygen and hydrogen isotope tracers changes during the test period. This study evaluated the accuracy and precision of different methods by which such background isotope changes can be corrected, including a modified method that allows prediction of the baseline that would be achieved if subjects were to consume water from a given source indefinitely. Subjects in this study were eight women (4 test subjects and 4 control subjects) who consumed for 28 days water enriched to resemble drinking water aboard the United States space shuttle. Test subjects and control subjects were given a DLW dose on days 1 and 15, respectively. The change to an enriched water source produced a bias in expenditure calculations that exceeded 2.9 MJ/day (35%), relative to calculations from intake-balance. The proposed correction based on the predicted final abundance of 18O and deuterium after equilibration to the new water source eliminated this bias, as did the traditional use of a control group. This new modified correction method is advantageous under field conditions when subject numbers are limited

Metabolic Energy Required for Flight

This paper reviews data available from U.S. and U.S.S.R. studies on energy metabolism in the microgravity of space flight. Energy utilization and energy availability in space seem to be similar to those on Earth. However, negative nitrogen balances in space in the presence of adequate energy and protein intakes and in-flight exercise, suggest that lean body mass decreases in space. Metabolic studies during simulated (bed rest) and actual microgravity have shown changes in blood glucose, fatty acids, and insulin levels, suggesting that energy metabolism may be altered during flight. Future research should focus on the interactions of lean body mass, diet, and exercise in space and their roles in energy metabolism during space flight