Impact of Exercise Intervention Combined with Optimal Mediterranean Diet Adherence during Pregnancy on Postpartum Body Composition: A Quasi-Experimental Study-The GESTAFIT Project

• Published in: Nutrients Vol. 15; no. 20; p. 4413
• Main Authors: Flor-Alemany, Marta, Acosta-Manzano, Pedro, Migueles, Jairo H, Henriksson, Pontus, Löf, Marie, Aparicio, Virginia A
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 01.10.2023; MDPI
• Subjects: Alcohol; Body Composition; Body Mass Index; Cereals; Dairy products; Diet; Diet, Mediterranean; dietary patterns; Exercise; Exercise Therapy; Female; Food; gestation; Humans; Intervention; lifestyle behaviors; Medicin och hälsovetenskap; nutrition; Physical fitness; Physiological aspects; Postpartum Period; postpartum weight retention; Pregnancy; Pregnant women; Quasi-experimental methods; Sociodemographics; Statistical analysis; Spain; United States > US; nutrition; lifestyle behaviors; gestation; dietary patterns; postpartum weight retention
• ISSN: 2072-6643; 2072-6643
• DOI: 10.3390/nu15204413

This study aimed to investigate whether the effects of an exercise program during pregnancy on postpartum body composition are moderated by following a healthy dietary pattern (i.e., Mediterranean diet (MD)). Eighty-three pregnant women (control n = 40, exercise n = 43) were included in the present quasi-experimental study. The exercise intervention consisted of a 60 min, 3 day/week throughout pregnancy from gestational week 17, supervised concurrent (aerobic + resistance) exercise program. A food frequency questionnaire and the MD Score (min-max: 0-50) were employed to assess dietary habits and the MD adherence during pregnancy, respectively. Postpartum body composition was measured with dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry, 6 weeks postpartum. The body mass index and the gynecoid fat mass at postpartum were lower in the exercise compared to the control group ( = 0.018 and = 0.047, respectively). There was an interaction showing that the MD adherence during pregnancy positively moderated the effects of the exercise intervention on postpartum lean mass ( = 0.024), fat mass percentage ( = 0.092), android fat mass ( = 0.076), and android-to-gynecoid fat mass ( = 0.019). The Johnson-Neyman technique revealed that the effects of exercise were enhanced at a MD score of ~31 for lean mass, ~25 for fat mass, ~23 for android fat mass and ~29 for android-to-gynecoid fat mass. Our results suggest that a concurrent-exercise training plus an optimal MD adherence during pregnancy might be a useful strategy to promote a healthier body composition at the postpartum period.