Acute and Chronic Effects of a Hypocaloric Diet on 24-Hour Blood Pressure,Heart Rate and Heart-Rate Variability in Mildly-to-Moderately Obese Patients with Essential Hypertension

We examined the acute and chronic effects of a nutritionally balanced, moderately hypocaloric diet on 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure, heart rate and heart-rate variability in mildly-to-moderately obese patients with essential hypertension. We enrolled 16 obese patients with essential hypertension [age: 51–76 years, body mass index (BMI): 26–32 kg/m²]. For the initial week, a standard diet of 2,000 kcal/day was given, followed by a 3-week of a hypocaloric diet of 850 kcal/day. In the last period of the standard diet and in the first and the last periods of the hypocaloric diet, each subject's 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure, heart rate and R-R intervals of the electrocardiogram were recorded, and electrolytes and catecholamines in 24-hour urine samples were also measured. A power spectral analysis of the heart-rate variability was performed over a 24-hour period based on the autoregressive method. The subjects lost 3.7 ± 0.3 kg (mean ± s. e. m.) of body