Effect of Exercise on Chocolate Addiction

University of Miami

Status: Completed

Conditions: Acute Exercise and Addictive Behavior

Treatments: Behavioral: Exercise

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT03356509

20170895

Details and patient eligibility

About

The study will use stress inducing tasks to determine if there are significant improvements in mood, chocolate cravings, and attentional bias to chocolate in overweight/obese chocolate abusers following rest and a bout of high intensity interval exercise.

Full description

The purpose of this research study is to investigate whether a single high intensity interval exercise (HIIE) bout, following two stress-inducing tasks, reduces addictive behavior to chocolate. Volunteers must complete the consent form before being able to participate in two days of testing (exercise day and control day) which will be presented in randomized order. The two days will be separated by a one to 7 day washout period. Subjects will be required to submit a three day chocolate diary then abstain from chocolate on the 4th day. They will also be asked to record everything they eat and drink on the day before and the morning of the study and list three types of chocolate they crave most. Two stress-inducing tasks will be performed on both days followed by completion of either 26 minutes of HIIE or seated resting condition followed by the completion of two mood and craving questionnaires. They will finally be asked to complete a task that measures the amount of attention they pay to chocolate. Statistical analyses will be conducted to determine the effect of either exercising or not on addictive behaviors to chocolate.

Enrollment: 12 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 45 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• BMI equal or greater than 25
• Eat at least 3.5 oz of chocolate per day
• Scorer at least 33 out of a possible 36 on the Handedness Questionnaire
• Ability to provide informed consent
• No medical contraindications to exercise
• Premenopausal

Exclusion criteria

• PMS
• Pregnancy
• Prisoners
• Risk factors for heart disease as determined by physician
• Medication that interferes with capacity to exercise
• Answer "Yes" to PAR-Q

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Crossover Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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12 participants in 2 patient groups

Exercise

Experimental group

Description:

They will do a 26-min bout of high intensity interval exercise.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Exercise

No exercise

No Intervention group

Description:

They will sit quietly for 26 minutes without access to electronic devices or reading materials.