Changes in Adolescents' Dietary Intake Following the Initiation of an 8-Week Exercise Program.

Purpose: To assess changes in dietary intake of adolescents following an 8-week aerobic exercise program.Methods: Twenty-six adolescents (14-18 years) participated in an 8-week aerobic exercise program on cycle ergometer at their high school in Quebec, Canada. Twenty-four hour recalls were collected pre- and post-intervention. A two-way repeated measures ANOVA and paired sample t-tests were used to assess differences in energy and dietary intake parameters (food quantity, diet quality, eating patterns) between pre- and postintervention.Results: A decrease in total daily energy intake (-287.8 kcal, P = 0.007), in meal size at lunch (-110.1 g, P = 0.02) and dinner (-143.7 g, P = 0.03), in food density at breakfast (-1.8 kcal/g, P = 0.04), in daily carbohydrate intake (-56.1 g, P = 0.005), and in percentage of energy intake consumed at school (-5.1%, P = 0.04) were observed following initiation of an aerobic exercise program. No change in healthy eating index scores or percentage of energy from processed foods was observed.Conclusions: Changes in energy intake, food quantity, and eating pattern but not diet quality (Healthy Eating Index or food processing scores) were observed following the initiation of an aerobic exercise program. Nutrition interventions may be needed, in addition to an exercise program, to target diet quality and promote healthy eating habits in adolescents.

Physical activity and perceptions of stress during the menopause transition: A longitudinal study.

The transition to menopause is a critical period of significant biopsychosocial change. The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of the transition to menopause and volume of physical activity on levels of perceived stress over five years in 102 healthy middle-aged women. Questionnaire and accelerometer data were analyzed using linear mixed models. Adjusting for age and body mass index, there were no significant effects of menopause status or time on perceived stress. Independent of menopause status, minutes per week of vigorous activity was associated with lower perceived stress in years 1 and 2 of the study.