Revista Brasileira de Cineantropometria e Desempenho Humano (Jun 2010)

<b>Effects of aquatic exercise and nutritional guidance on the body composition of obese children and adolescents</b>

  • Gerusa Eisfeld Milano,
  • Fabrício Cieslak,
  • Maria Emilia D. Von der Heyde,
  • Paulo Cesar Barauce Bento,
  • Renata Torres,
  • Jean Fuzetti Cavazza,
  • Maria de Fátima Aguiar Lopes,
  • Leilane Lazarotto,
  • Neiva Leite

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 12, no. 4
pp. 232 – 238

Abstract

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The objective of this study was to analyze the effects of aquatic exercise and nutritionalguidance on the body composition of obese children and adolescents. Thirty obese childrenaged 10 to 16 years, with a body mass index (BMI) above the 95th percentile according to theclassification proposed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, 2000), weredivided into two groups: the first group started learning to swim (GSwim, n = 10) and the secondgroup underwent a deep water running program (GDeep, n = 20). Weight, height, BMI, BMIZ-scores, relative and absolute fat, and relative and absolute lean body mass were evaluated atbaseline and after 12 weeks. The program consisted of 12 meetings for nutritional guidance (oncea week) and 36 sessions of exercise (three times per week). MANOVA and Fisher’s exact testwere used for statistical analysis, with the level of significance set at p < 0.05. After 12 weeks,GDeep showed a significant reduction in BMI, BMI Z-scores and relative and absolute fat,and an increase in relative and absolute lean body mass. Significant differences were observedbetween GDeep and GSwim in terms of the reduction in body fat (p = 0.014) and the increasein lean mass (p = 0.006). A program of deep water running together with nutritional guidancemay promote significant changes in the body composition of obese children and adolescents dueto the cyclic characteristic of this physical activity.

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