Effects of Meditative Movement on Body Composition
Conditions
Keywords
Midlife Women, Body Composition, Meditative Movement, Emotional Eating, Sleep Quality, Body Fat Percentage, Tai Chi Easy
Brief summary
This study will explore the effects of meditative movement on body composition in a group of 60 midlife women. Women will participate in 30-minute meditative movement (MM) classes for an eight-week period. Participants will be encouraged to practice MM at home for at least 30 minutes most days per week. Participants will be asked to complete a log of their time spent doing meditative movement outside of classes.
Detailed description
A growing body of published evidence indicates that meditative movement (MM) practices may be helpful for body composition improvement. Less strenuous forms of exercise that include a focus on the breath and meditative state (i.e., meditative movement such as Yoga, Qigong, or Tai Chi) may be easier to adopt for unfit, sedentary, overweight or obese women, which characterizes a large percentage of the general population. Despite this preliminary evidence, no studies have proposed a model for how or why weight loss might occur in MM interventions where the goals are not designated as weight loss, nutritional counseling is not included, and energy expenditure is not at the level assumed to be required to achieve weight loss. The proposed intervention is designed to refine and gather preliminary evidence for a novel mindful-body-wisdom model of intervening on improving body composition and to examine the contribution of model factors (psychological and behavioral) of how such a non-diet/non-vigorous exercise intervention might work, in 60 midlife women. TCE is a simple TC/QG form that was developed by Dr. Roger Jahnke and developed into a standardized research intervention protocol by a team of researchers. It has been used in several prior projects and one recently completed NIH/NCCAM-funded randomized controlled trial (RCT) with breast cancer survivors showing reduction in fatigue and depression, and improved sleep and physical function.
Interventions
BEHAVIORALMeditative Movement
Intervention will be taught by a certified Tai Chi Easy (TCE) group practice leader. The TCE movements will be repeated in differing sequences and time-frames during the course of the study. The variety and combination of the exercises will begin easy and progress to more advanced movements and/or intensities as the study progresses and participants become more experienced and comfortable with the routine. Participants spend one hour in class each week for a total of eight weeks.
Sponsors
Arizona State University
Study design
Allocation
NA
Intervention model
SINGLE_GROUP
Primary purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Intervention model description
Clinical trial with single arm
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
FEMALE
Age
45 Years to 75 Years
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
* Female * 45-75 years of age * Ability to participate in low intensity activity
Exclusion criteria
* Women who are unable to stand for 10-minute segments (e.g., wheelchair or walker bound and too weak) * Women who are unable to walk
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Body Fat Percentage | 8 weeks | Body fat percentage will be measured using Bioelectric Impedance Analysis (BIA) via the Tanita monitor. Score range= 0% to 100%. A higher score indicates a higher body fat percentage. |
| Emotional Eating | 8 weeks | Emotional eating will be measured using the Three Factor Eating Questionnaire (TFEQ) (21 items, 4-point Likert scale with response options 1 through 4 for items 1 through 17, response options 1 through 8 for item 18). Score range= 18 to 76. Emotional eating sub-score is calculated by combining six items of the TFEQ. A higher score indicates greater emotional eating. |
| Sleep Quality | 8 weeks | Sleep quality will be measured using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) (10 items, 4-point Likert scale; 0= positive extreme of scale, 3= negative extreme of scale). Score range= 0 to 21. A higher score indicates worse sleep quality. |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Perceived Stress Scale-10 | 8 weeks | self-report measure of perceived stress, 10-items, Likert scale |
| Cognitive and Affective Mindfulness Scale-Revised (CAMS-R) | 8 weeks | self-report measure of mindfulness, Likert-scale, 9-items |
| Self-Compassion Scale (SCS) | 8 weeks | self-report measure of self-compassion as measured (26 items) by self-kindness, common humanity, non-judgment |
| Body Awareness Questionnaire (BAQ) | 8 weeks | self-report measure of experienced body awareness/iteroception, 18-items, Likert-scale |
Countries
United States
Outcome results
None listed