Effect of home‐based exercise with or without a Mediterranean‐style diet on adiposity markers in postmenopausal women: A randomized‐control trial

Advancing age and estrogen deficiency increases susceptibility of post-menopausal women (PMW) to abdominal obesity and manifestation of cardiometabolic disease. There is limited evidence on the effect of lifestyle interventions on adiposity markers within at-risk PMW. Therefore, this study aims to evaluates an 8-weeks of home-based, equipment-free, interval training (HEFIT) with or without Mediterranean-style diet (MD) on adiposity markers in physically inactive, postmenopausal women with overweight/obesity. Thirty PMW (56.7 ± 3.9 years, BMI: 30.5 ± 5.2 kg/m²) were randomly assigned to three groups: (i) Ex; HEFIT thrice weekly/week, (ii) EX + MD, or (iii) CTL; control. Visceral Adiposity Index (VAI), body weight, BMI, waist and hip circumference (WC; HC), visceral adipose tissue (VAT), total body fat percentage, leptin, and adiponectin were determined pre- and post-8-week intervention. There was no significant between group effect on VAI. Compared to CTL, a significant between group reduction was seen in weight, BMI, and WC in both EX and EX+D (p < 0.05). Leptin and adiponectin remained unchanged in all groups (p > 0.05). Adherence rates were 85% and 96% for EX and EX+MD, respectively, and 80% of EX+D of participants had optimal adherence to diet. Concluding HEFIT with or without dietary changes could improve adiposity in overweight/obese postmenopausal women.