A recent study reports beneficial effects of lifestyle intervention that effectively improved diet and physical activity and reduced gestational weight gain and adiposity in obese pregnant women. The intervention resulted in marked improvements in most very low-density lipoprotein (VLDL) particles. Findings were published in the journal, BMC Medicine.
The UPBEAT (UK Pregnancies Better Eating and Activity Trial) was a randomised control trial that evaluated 1555 obese women with singleton pregnancies. Women were randomly allocated to either complex behavioural intervention of diet and physical activity advice (UPBEAT intervention) or standard antenatal care.
In obese women assigned to usual care, between 16 and 36 weeks of gestation, lipids and phospholipids of all sizes of very low, intermediate and low-density lipoprotein increased by 1–3 standard deviation (SD) with triglycerides in these lipoproteins increasing by 2–3 SD. Concentrations of very large high-density lipoprotein increased between 0.3 and 0.5 SD with increase of triglycerides by 2 SD.
Comparisons suggested that magnitude of changes across pregnancy in metabolic measures in these obese women were 2- to 3-fold larger than in unselected healthy women in a previously published study. UPBEAT intervention resulted in reductions in rate of increase of all lipids, phospholipids and triglycerides in extremely large, very large, large and medium VLDL particles, particularly those containing triglycerides.
In a separate analysis, authors reported that UPBEAT intervention resulted in lower levels of adiposity in offspring at 6 months. They conclude that UPBEAT lifestyle intervention may contribute to a healthier metabolic profile in obese pregnant women.
