The Effectiveness of MyPlate and Paleolithic-based Diet Recommendations, both with and without Exercise, on Aerobic Fitness, Muscular Strength and Anaerobic Power in Young Women: A Randomized Clinical Trial

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of recommending a MyPlate or a Paleolithic-based diet, both with and without exercise, on aerobic fitness, strength, and anaerobic power over eight weeks. Participants (n=20) were randomized to one of four groups, (1) a MyPlate diet (MP), (2) Paleolithic-based diet (PD), (3) MyPlate and exercise (MP + Ex), and (4) Paleolithic-based diet and exercise (PD + Ex). The exercise included two days of unsupervised aerobic and resistance exercise. At baseline and final, absolute and relative peak oxygen consumption (absVO(2peak) and relVO(2peak)), anaerobic power, and upper and lower body strength were determined. Data were analyzed using repeated measures two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). The ANOVA indicated that there was no significant interaction between time point (TP)*diet (D)*exercise (Ex) for all variables except relVO(2peak) (p = 0.016). The MP + Ex group (Δ+4.4 ml·kg(−1)·min(−1)) had a greater change from baseline compared to the MP group (Δ−2.7 ml·kg(−1)·min(−1), p = 0.002), and PD + Ex group (Δ−0.3 ml·kg(−1)·min(−1), p = 0.03). The results suggest recommending a MyPlate diet with both aerobic and resistance training are effective at improving aerobic fitness when compared to PD recommendations with exercise, although these conclusions may be confounded by low compliance to exercise recommendations.