Cognitive dietary restraint: Impact on bone, menstrual and metabolic status in young women

Abstract: We compared bone mineral density (BMD) and content (BMC), menstrual and metabolic status between physically active women with 1) high cognitive dietary restraint (High-CDR) (score≥9, n =38) and Normal-CDR (score<9, n =46) and 2) across quartiles of CDR scores. Eighty-four physically active (500±35 min wk−1) premenopausal women participated and were categorized according to their CDR score. Primary outcomes included, BMD, BMC, menstrual status, estrone-3-glucuronide (E1G) and pregnanediol-3-glucuronide (PdG) area under the curve (AUC). Secondary outcomes included resting energy expenditure (REE), total triiodothyronine, and ghrelin. Measures of body mass (59.2±1.1 vs. 58.5±1.0 kg) and percent body fat (24.7±1.2 vs. 23.7±0.7%) were similar between women with Normal-CDR and High-CDR, however the High-CDR group had lower total body (1.140±0.011 vs. 1.179±0.010 g cm−2; p =0.015) and lumbar spine (1.114±0.019 vs. 1.223±0.022 g cm−2; p =0.001) BMD. The prevalence of oligo-amenorrhea was higher in the High-CDR group and became increasingly greater across the CDR quartiles. There were no differences in metabolic characteristics between the High-CDR and Normal-CDR groups, however REE and the ratio of measured to predicted REE were lower in the fourth quartile (CDR scores≥13) compared to the second and third quartiles. Our results provide evidence that high CDR scores are associated with reduced lumbar spine and total body BMD in physically active premenopausal women. A greater frequency of menstrual disturbances in women with higher CDR scores likely played a role in the reduced total body and lumbar spine BMD. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]