Exercise and mind-body exercise for feeding and eating disorders: a systematic review with meta-analysis and meta-regressions

To develop a systematic review with meta-analysis to summarize the effectiveness of exercise, regular physical activity, and mind-body exercise on harmful exercise habits, psychological factors, and quality of life in people clinically diagnosed with feeding and eating disorders. Randomized clinical trials and pilot randomized clinical trials were considered. Twelve studies were included. No studies evaluated athletes. No studies examined regular physical activity as the targeted intervention. Quality of life could not be meta-analyzed. Overall, meta-analyses showed that exercise or mind-body exercise was not more effective than controls in reducing depression symptoms, harmful exercise habits, eating behaviors, or emotional regulation skills. However, important methodological and clinical issues were detected in the included studies. This affected the certainty of evidence of the meta-analyzed outcomes which ranged from low to very low. No studies reported in sufficient detail their interventions to be replicated. Overall, exercise and mind-body exercise may be ineffective in improving meta-analyzed outcomes. However, the certainty of evidence ranged from low to very low and the body of knowledge in this field needs to be increased to reach robust conclusions. Exercise and mind-boy exercises were not more effective than controls for eating behaviors in eating disorders. Exercise and mind-boy exercises were not more effective than controls for depression symptoms in eating disorders. Clinicians should be aware no specific exercises can be recommended for treating psychological factors in eating disorders.