Acute intense exercise improves sleep and decreases next morning consumption of energy‐dense food in adolescent girls with obesity and evening chronotype

BACKGROUND Although adolescence and obesity are related to impaired sleep duration and quality, exercise was admitted as a nonpharmacological treatment for sleep and better control of energy balance. OBJECTIVES To investigate the acute effects of intense exercise on sleep and subsequent dietary intake. METHODS Sixteen adolescent girls with obesity (age 13.7 ± 1.1 years, weight 82.7 ± 10.2 kg, body mass index (BMI) 30.5 ± 3.4 kg/m2 , fat mass (FM) 39.2 ± 3.1%, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) 8.6 ± 2.8, paediatric daytime sleepiness scale (PDSS) 19.6 ± 5.9) took part in two experimental sessions in a random order: Control (CTL) and Exercise (EX). The two sessions were identical except for a continuous ergocycle exercise bout lasting 40 minutes and performed at 70% VO2max at the end of the morning of EX. Energy expenditure and sleep were measured by accelerometry and next-morning dietary intake in an ad libitum meal. RESULTS Higher sleep duration (P