While there is an increasing prevalence of dieting in the overall population, weight loss (WL) practices could be a risk factor for weight gain (WG) in normal-weight (NW) individuals. The aim of the present work was to systematically review all the studies implicating diet restriction and body weight (BW) evolution in NW people. The literature search was registered in PROSPERO (CRD42021281442) and was performed in three databases from April 2021 to June 2022 for articles involving healthy NW adults. From a total of 1487 records initially identified, eighteen were selected in the systematic review. Of the eight dieting interventional studies, only one found a higher BW after weight recovery, but 75 % of them highlighted metabolic adaptations in response to WL favouring weight regain and persisting during/after BW recovery. Eight of the ten observational studies showed a relationship between dieting and major later WG, while the meta-analysis of observational studies results indicated that ‘dieters’ have a higher BW than ‘non-dieters’. However, considering the high methodological heterogeneity and the publication bias of the studies, this result should be taken with caution. Moreover, the term ‘diet’ was poorly described, and we observed a large heterogeneity of the methods used to assess dieting status. Present results suggest that dieting could be a major risk factor for WG in the long term in NW individuals. There is, however, a real need for prospective randomised controlled studies, specifically assessing the relationship between WL induced by diet and subsequent weight in this population.

School-based multi-component educational interventions have been encouraged to improve children’s movement behaviors. The present study evaluates the effect of the Globe Trotter Initiative on physical activity (PA) level, sedentary time, physical fitness and activity preferences in primary school children. A total of 361 children (9–10 years) participated in this cluster-randomized trial. Nine schools were randomized as control (CON, 121 children) or Globe Trotter schools (GT, 240 children). Physical fitness, body composition, anthropometric characteristics, PA level, sedentary behaviors, physical self-perception, and activity preferences were evaluated at baseline (T0) and after the one-month intervention (T1). Grip strength performance and overall completion time of the obstacle course show a significant time effect (p < 0.001) in both groups (no group effect). PA level and physical self-perception did not significantly show time nor group effects. The sedentary behavior score displays a significant “time × group” interaction effect (p = 0.04) with a significant reduction between T0 and T1 in the GT group only (p < 0.001). The explicit liking for sedentary activities shows a significant “time × group” interaction (p = 0.02) with a significant decrease between T0 and T1 in the GT group only (p < 0.001). The explicit wanting for sedentary activities show a significant “time × group” interaction (p = 0.02) with a significant decrease between T0 and T1 in the GT group only (p < 0.001). The short-term, multi-component, behavioral, educational GT intervention had beneficial effects on primary-school-aged children’s sedentary time and implicit preference for physical over sedentary activities.

Article: A reproducible, self-reported, field-based tool for monitoring ovarian hormone status and body weight variations in female athletes: the Answ’Her questionnaire - The Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness 2024 Jun 18 - Minerva Medica - Journals