Changes in autonomic nervous system activity, body weight, and percentage fat mass in the first year postpartum and factors regulating the return to pre-pregnancy weight

Table 3 Body weight, percentage fat mass, body mass index, and normalized autonomic nervous system activity at three time points (n = 51)

	30–150 days	150–270 days	270–360 days	P values
Body weight (kg)	51.5 ± 1.0	50.4 ± 1.0	49.9 ± 1.0	<.001
Percentage fat mass (%)	27.4 ± 0.8	26.1 ± 0.8	25.3 ± 0.8	<.001
Body mass index	20.3 ± 0.3	19.9 ± 0.3	19.7 ± 0.3	<.001
Body weight reduction (kg)	8.8 ± 4.2	9.9 ± 4.4	10.4 ± 5.0	<.001
TP	100.0	122.5 ± 14.9	133.9 ± 18.6	0.216
LF	27.6 ± 1.6	39.9 ± 5.9	47.4 ± 8.3	0.081
HF	39.5 ± 2.5	45.4 ± 6.0	48.5 ± 7.1	0.473
VLF	32.8 ± 2.4	37.2 ± 4.5	37.9 ± 4.6	0.541
SNS activity	2.8 ± 0.6	2.1 ± 0.2	2.0 ± 0.2	0.662
PNS activity	0.4 ± 0.02	0.4 ± 0.02	0.4 ± 0.02	0.662
Exercise habits^a
have	4(7.8)	4(7.8)	4(7.8)	-
no	47(92.2)	47(92.2)	47(92.2)	-

Mean ± standard error or ^aN (%); repeated measures analysis of variance
TP total power, LF low frequency, HF high frequency, VLF very low frequency, SNS sympathetic nervous system, PNS parasympathetic nervous system
TP at 30-150 days was considered to be 100, and TP, LF, HF, VLF, SNS activity, and PNS activity were normalized by this value

ISSN: 1880-6805