Practice of moderate physical activity can attenuate the loss of lean body mass in menopausal women

Abstract

The aim of this study was to analyze the relationship between physical activity (PA) and total body (BLM), leg (LLM) and arm lean mass (ALM) in menopausal women. Sixty two 62 menopausal women were included (61.2±7.6 years). Their practice of PA was assessed by Actigraph GT3X accelerometer, and is reported as minutes per week of light or moderate-vigorous PA, and total PA. The sample was dichotomized into two groups according to their weekly practice of PA moderate-vigorous; physically active (≥150 minutes) and insufficiently active (<150 minutes). Body composition measures were assessed by DXA and were reported as percentages. Comparisons between the groups of PA and total and segmental lean body mass were performed by independent t test. Association between the tertile of BLM and the groups of PA were performed by chi-square test. Physically active women showed significantly higher mean values for BLM (52.8±5.4 vs 49.8±4.7; p=0.028) and LLM (17.1±2.2 vs 15.9±1.8; p=0.026), whereas the difference in the ALM was not significant. When the BLM was categorized into tertiles, it was significantly greater in physically active women (higher tertile=44.7%), compared with the insufficiently active women (higher tertile=16.7%). Menopausal women who spent more minutes engaged in moderate-vigorous PA can showed higher BLM and LLM.