Potential Benefits of Strength Training for Men Living With Obesity
Phase: NA
Conditions: Obesity
Sponsor: University of New Brunswick

 
Title: RESISTANCE TRAINING FOR MEN LIVING WITH OBESITY 
 
NCT Number: Not applicable 
 
Version Date: Sep 22, 2020 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
Background 
Physical activity is often recommended to reduce the complications associated with obesity, 
but people living with obesity exercise less than their lean counterparts. Men are more likely to 
develop obesity related diseases compared with women. Most resources for obesity management 
are targeting women. Emerging evidences suggest that alternative obesity management 
strategies need to address gender preferences to adopt healthier lifestyles such as resistance 
training. 
 
Objective 
 
Examine adherence to the physical activity guidelines for men living with obesity who 
were exposed to a novel circuit weight training program compared with standard care. 
 
Design 
 
Sixty men living with obesity will be recruited and randomly assigned to either a standard 
care group (N = 30) or an intervention group (N = 30). Eligible participants will be age 19 years 
or older, living with obesity (BF ≥ 28%), able to perform exercises, but not currently engaged 
in regular physical activities (150 min of moderate to vigorous aerobic activities + two sessions 
of RT per week). Participants will be asked to maintain their current dietary habits within the duration 
of the project. 
 
Method 
 
Participants will be asked to come in person to visit the CELLAB at UNB four times (i.e., 
baseline, 12 weeks, 24 weeks and 48 weeks after baseline; each time for about 90 minutes or do 
the testing virtually. 
 
Testing done in the CELLAB. During each of the four visit, anthropometric measures (e.g., 
weight, height, and waist circumference), body composition (e.g., fat and muscle), physical fitness,
blood lipids/glucose, and blood pressure will be assessed. Participants will be asked to arrive at 
the CELLAB at UNB in the morning of the first visit after fasting for a minimum of 12 hours. A 
small sample of blood will be collected via a finger prick to measure lipids and glucose levels. 
After recording body composition, a snack will be provided. 
 
When participants leave the CELLAB, they will be asked to wear a Fitbit watch for seven 
consecutive days (24 hours per day) to quantify their physical activity level. Then, participants 

can drop the device at UNB or send it by mail. Four questionnaires will be self-administered to 
collect information on: 
 
1- The perception of the ability to perform exercise using the Self-Efficacy for Exercise 
(SEE) Scale (Resnick and Jenkins 2000) 
2- The perceived barriers/benefits to exercise using the Exercise Benefits/Barriers Scale 
(EBBS) (Sechrist et al. 1987) 
3- The  technology  ability  using  the  Functional  Assessment  of  Currently  Employed 
Technology Scale (FACETS) (Lepkowsky and Arndt 2018) 
 
If tests done virtually. If participants do not come to the CELLAB for testing, they will be 
asked to self-report their weight, height, and waist circumference. At all four time-points, the 
research team will mail or drop a Fitbit for them to wear for seven consecutive days (24 hours per 
day) to quantify physical activity level. When the seven days are completed, participants will be 
asked to drop the device in the nearest Canada Post mailbox using the prepaid envelope. The same 
questionnaires will be administered. 
 
Intervention 
 
RT+ program. Participants in RT+ group will be asked to exercise three times per week and 
 
perform four basic RT exercises in a circuit manner for 12 weeks while supervised via an online 
platform such as Skype or TEAM. Before starting the 12-week program, each participant will 
receive an educational session explaining and teaching RT+ exercises. During this session, the 
participant will go though the exercises to make sure he knows how to preform RT+ exercises 
correctly and modifications will be applied if needed based on participants conditions. The first 
week of sessions will be in person supervised. Participants will be eased into the program using a 
three-week progressive start, completing 120 minutes of exercise in week one, 150 minutes in 
week two, 180 minutes in week three and week four. Participants will be supervised 3X/week for 
the first four weeks, then 2X/week for the next four weeks and 1X/week for the remaining four 
weeks. This strategy has been successfully used previously to increase participant autonomy before 
they start the unsupervised phase. At each session, a participant will perform the four prescribed 
exercises (i.e., squats, tricep dips, lunges, and push-ups) for 45 seconds each,  then switch 
immediately (15 seconds) to the next exercise followed by one-minute of rest at the end of each 

circuit. The circuit will repeat until the session is complete. If a participant has restrictions that 
prevent him from performing an exercise, modifications will be made. 
 
Standard care (control). Participants allocated to the control standard care group will receive free 
 
access to an exercise platform (V-Shred-Ripped-in-90-days) for the same period of time (12 weeks) 
to become more active. It will be recommended that they do a minimum of 150 minutes of moderate 
to vigorous aerobic activities and two resistance training sessions using the platform. 
 
Statistical analysis 
 
Sample size calculations was done based on the anticipated change in the proportion of 
obese men to achieve the PA guidelines (minimum of 150 minutes spent at MVPA in a week in 
addition to two sessions of RT). It is predicted that the proportion of men living with obesity who 
meet physical activity guidelines (both aerobic MVPA and RT) in the RT+ group will increase to 
26.2% (similar to lean counterparts) at follow-up compared with 0% increased for the control 
group. The alpha level and power of analysis were set at 0.05 and 80% respectively, considering a 
drop-out rate of 30% in each group.  A total of 23 people per group were required, so we will 
recruit 30 per group. 
 
To evaluate the effect of the intervention on the main outcome (% of people reaching the 
PA guidelines 36 weeks after the intervention), a logistic regression model will be used. The 
independent variables will include age, PA level at baseline, the randomized group, and other 
potential confounding variables.