Last updated May 6, 2026
Key finding
In overweight or obese pregnant women, supervised exercise did not reduce gestational weight gain, but it may have lowered gestational diabetes incidence and late-pregnancy systolic blood pressure.
This trial tested supervised prenatal exercise in overweight or obese pregnant women. The program did not reduce pregnancy weight gain overall, but fewer women developed gestational diabetes and systolic blood pressure was lower late in pregnancy. Because the study recruited fewer women than planned and adherence was modest, these benefits should be viewed cautiously.
Quick read
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EvidenceScore™
Low
Study type
Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs)
Follow-up
Medium-Term (3–12 mo)
Risk of bias
Some Concerns
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Plain-language summary
A plain-language read of the study’s main message and where it applies.
Study focus
In overweight or obese pregnant women, supervised exercise did not reduce gestational weight gain, but it may have lowered gestational diabetes incidence and late-pregnancy systolic blood pressure.
Published in
Publication details and source links for this paper.
Garnæs KK, Mørkved S, Salvesen Ø, Moholdt T. Exercise Training and Weight Gain in Obese Pregnant Women: A Randomized Controlled Trial (ETIP Trial). PLoS Med. 2016;13(7):e1002079. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1002079
Gestational weight gain ↔ no clear difference between groups
Gestational diabetes incidence ↓ in the exercise group
Systolic blood pressure ↓ in late pregnancy with exercise
This study applies most directly to pregnant women with prepregnancy overweight or obesity receiving routine maternity care. It is most relevant to women starting pregnancy without known gestational diabetes but at elevated metabolic risk.
The strongest conclusion from this trial is that supervised exercise did not clearly reduce gestational weight gain. The more encouraging findings involved secondary outcomes, especially gestational diabetes incidence and systolic blood pressure. Because the trial was smaller than planned and adherence was only moderate, those benefits may be real but remain less certain than they would be in a larger, better-powered study.
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This study contributes to evidence on Exercise therapy and Blood Pressure.
This study contributes to the evidence on the following intervention-outcome relationships.
Physical Activity
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Exercise therapy has been studied in relation to Systolic blood pressure, but the direction of effect is unclear.
ConsistencyScore™: Consistency cannot yet be determined from the available evidence.
Ranked evidence signals
Systolic blood pressure
EvidenceScore™ Emerging | EvidenceScore™ 59.0 | unknown | ConsistencyScore™ Unclear | 1 study
Why this answer: This answer is based on a single supporting study.
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