Effects of an acute bout of aerobic exercise on 1 immediate and subsequent three - day food intake and 2 energy expenditure in active and inactive pre - 3 menopausal women taking oral contraceptives

314 words) 30 This study examined the effects of an acute bout of exercise of low-intensity on food 31 intake and energy expenditure over four days in women taking oral contraceptives. 32 Twenty healthy, active (n=10) and inactive (n=10) pre-menopausal women taking oral 33 contraceptives completed two conditions (exercise and control), in a randomised, 34 crossover fashion. The exercise experimental day involved cycling for one hour at an 35 intensity equivalent to 50% of maximum oxygen uptake and two hours of rest. The 36 control condition comprised three hours of rest. Participants arrived at the laboratory 37 fasted overnight; breakfast was standardised and an ad libitum pasta lunch was 38 consumed on each experimental day. Participants kept a food diary to measure food 39 intake and wore an Actiheart to measure energy expenditure for the remainder of the 40 experimental days and over the subsequent 3 days. There was a condition effect for 41 absolute energy intake (exercise vs. control: 3363 ± 668 kJ vs. 3035 ± 752 kJ; p = 42 0.033, d = 0.49) and relative energy intake (exercise vs. control: 2019 ± 746 kJ vs. 43 2710 ± 712 kJ; p < 0.001, d = -1.00) at the ad libitum lunch. There were no significant 44 differences in energy intake over the four days in active participants and there was a 45 suppression of energy intake on the first day after the exercise experimental day 46 compared with the same day of the control condition in inactive participants (mean 47