Role of Peanuts in Healthy Weight Gain in Athletic Individuals

NCT ID: NCT05426109

Last Updated: 2025-06-10

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: COMPLETED
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 33 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2021-11-22
• Study Completion Date: 2024-11-12

Brief Summary

Many athletes and military personnel desire weight gain primarily as lean mass to improve performance and effectiveness in military/sport endeavors. While much is known about the energy restriction required to reduce body weight, very little is understood about energy and macronutrients needed to promote healthy gains in body weight and lean mass. Typically, athletes are encouraged to increase calorie intake by ~500 kcal/day with an emphasis on adequate protein and carbohydrate, and judicious inclusion of healthy fat-containing calorically-dense foods, including peanuts and peanut butter. This study proposes to evaluate the effect of a 10-week diet and exercise regimen designed to promote healthy weight gain. This will include increasing energy intake by 500 additional kcal/day (above weight maintenance diet) through daily provision of either peanut-based whole foods/snacks (peanut group) or a similar, high-carbohydrate, peanut-free snack (control group) along with a supervised strength training regimen. Results will serve as an important first step in helping understand the gaps in knowledge related to healthy weight gain, designing better weight gain meal plans, not only in athletes and military personnel, but also in clinical populations where promotion of weight gain is advocated.

Conditions

Weight Gain

Study Design

• Allocation Method: RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Primary Study Purpose: TREATMENT
• Blinding Strategy: NONE

Study Groups

Peanut snacks

Participants will be provided and consume an extra 500 kcal/day of peanut-containing snacks for 10 weeks.

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Peanut snacks

Intervention Type: OTHER

Participants will undergo a 10-week diet and weight training regimen to promote healthy weight gain. These participants will receive seven 500 kcal peanut-containing (whole peanuts or peanut butter) snacks each week and consume one snack per day throughout the study. They will also perform a series of weight training exercises supervised by a personal trainer on 3 days per week.

No peanut-containing snacks

Participants will be provided and consume an extra 500 kcal/day of snacks without peanuts or peanut-containing foods for 10 weeks.

Group Type: ACTIVE_COMPARATOR

No peanut-containing snacks

Intervention Type: OTHER

Participants will undergo a 10-week diet and weight training regimen to promote healthy weight gain. These participants will receive seven 500 kcal non-peanut-containing high carbohydrate snacks each week and consume one snack per day throughout the study. They will also perform a series of weight training exercises supervised by a personal trainer on 3 days per week.

Interventions

Peanut snacks

Participants will undergo a 10-week diet and weight training regimen to promote healthy weight gain. These participants will receive seven 500 kcal peanut-containing (whole peanuts or peanut butter) snacks each week and consume one snack per day throughout the study. They will also perform a series of weight training exercises supervised by a personal trainer on 3 days per week.

Intervention Type: OTHER

No peanut-containing snacks

Participants will undergo a 10-week diet and weight training regimen to promote healthy weight gain. These participants will receive seven 500 kcal non-peanut-containing high carbohydrate snacks each week and consume one snack per day throughout the study. They will also perform a series of weight training exercises supervised by a personal trainer on 3 days per week.

Intervention Type: OTHER

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• Interested in gaining 5 pounds of body weight to enhance effectiveness in sport, fitness, or military training/competition.
• Willing to eat 500 kcal/d and weight train 3x/wk for 10 weeks
• Have weight trained in the past 12 months
• Not taking medications or dietary supplements that influence study results
• Non-smoker
• Without any major medical problems (including high blood pressure or coronary heart disease)

Exclusion Criteria

• Nut, peanut, tree nut or legume allergy
• No weight training experience
• Orthopedic limitations that affect ability to weight train
• Currently taking dietary supplements or prescribed pharmacological agents that may affect lean tissue accretion
• Current or past anabolic steroid use
• Have a history of or current signs of disordered eating
• Pregnant
• Abnormal levels of thyroid stimulating hormone or hemoglobin, serum lipids (e.g., fasting triglycerides >150 mg/dL and/or total cholesterol >200 mg/dL)

• Minimum Eligible Age: 18 Years
• Maximum Eligible Age: 40 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Sponsors

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Dawnine Enette Larson-Meyer

Professor

Responsibility Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Principal Investigators

Enette Larson-Meyer, PhD

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Locations

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Blacksburg, Virginia, United States

Countries

United States

References

Sanchez AD, Reynolds JC, Marinik EL, Kolb RD, Lozano AJ, Davy BM, Hunter GR, Larson-Meyer DE. A Randomized Trial of Healthy Weight Gain in Athletic Individuals. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2024 Aug 1;56(8):1454-1466. doi: 10.1249/MSS.0000000000003427. Epub 2024 Mar 23.

Reference Type: DERIVED

PMID: 38537251 (View on PubMed)

Provided Documents

Document Type: Study Protocol and Statistical Analysis Plan

View Document

Other Identifiers

21-561

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id