In modern society, dietary habits have shifted to a preference for processed foods and fast foods, due to their practicality. This high-calorie, low-nutrient, and highly palatable diet can cause an imbalance between energy intake and expenditure and consequently trigger obesity, and their prevalence has increased worldwide in the past years, reaching pandemic levels, influenced by multifactorial nature such as genetic, environmental, behavioral, and lifestyle factors1, 2, 3.

Adequate nutrition is important for bone growth and maintenance in all stages of life, and for prevention of fractures by osteoporosis in old age4. Previous studies have confirmed the deleterious effects of the western-style diet on bone5, 6, 7 by using the cafeteria diet, composed of highly energetic and palatable human foods, in animal models. Common items of this diet are ultra-processed foods, like soda, milk chocolate, cookies, condensed milk, french fries and others8. The cafeteria diet is different than a high-fat diet for experimental obesity and metabolic syndrome because it contains simple carbohydrates and saturated fat being similar to the western-pattern human diet9.

Furthermore, lifestyle is changing worldwide, especially in developed countries, where people spend most of their time in front of computers and other screens. This is contributing to physical inactivity, particularly among children and teenagers10. Sedentarism and obesity are the main risk factors for global mortality and could be related to decreased bone quality and increased risk of bone diseases such as osteoporosis. Physical activity, on the other hand, has been related to a better quality of life and bone health11. Regular exercise has positive effects on bone mineral density (BMD), as the forces on the skeleton produced while exercising create deformations in the bone, stimulating bone remodeling and improving mechanical parameters12, 13, 14, 15, 16. Besides, exercise has shown to improve BMD due to action of ground reaction forces on muscles13.

Despite several studies showing the impact of the cafeteria diet on bone, there are few reports of the impact of such diet within different lifestyles, especially with resistance training. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to evaluate the effects of the cafeteria diet on the bone quality of male rats submitted to sedentary or active lifestyle (ladder climb). The null hypothesis is that the cafeteria diet and lifestyle do not influence bone quality and white adipose tissue.