Diet and exercise intervention strategies : preventing metabolic syndrome\ud in middle-aged women

Graduation date: 2009The purpose of this study is to determine whether a 12-week nutrition and\ud physical activity (PA) intervention program for middle-aged, pre-menopausal\ud women at risk for Metabolic Syndrome (MetS) would reduce their risk factors.\ud Ten overweight women (mean ± SD: age = 47 ± 3y; Body Mass Index = 31.0 ±\ud 3.1 kg/m²) at risk for MetS were recruited and completed all phases of the\ud program. At pre- and post-intervention participants completed 4-day weighted\ud food records and PA logs. The intervention was focused on increasing whole\ud grains, fruits and vegetables (servings/day), reducing saturated fat (g/day) and\ud increasing PA (minutes/day). Participants significant increase in whole grains (Δ\ud = 2.6 servings/day, p = 0.005), fiber (Δ = 6.9 g/day, p < 0.03) and PA (Δ = 39\ud minutes/day, p < 0.0001, n = 9), while significantly decreasing saturated fat\ud intake (Δ = 7.5 g/day, P = 0.02). Fruit, vegetable and total fat intake did not\ud change significantly. Body weight (kg) and % body fat did not change. The\ud program was successful by fostering positive lifestyle behaviors known to reduce\ud risk of MetS such as increased PA and improving some dietary factors. A larger\ud sample size may be needed to see greater improvements in whole fruit,\ud vegetable and total fat intake in a 12-week period