Energy Expenditure during Walking with Wearable Weights on the Wrist and Ankle in Overweight/Obese Adults
Authors: Choi Myung Dong , Mydlo Michael , Hossain Trina , Compeau Micayla , Ruggero Salvatore , Arab Sarah 
Published: April 2020

Obesity is currently global pandemic and affects more than 20% of Western populations and more than 35% of US adults, and their prevalence continues to grow at an alarming rate. Exercise is an important factor of obesity and overweight management, and exercise itself leads to improvements of chronic diseases. More importantly, recent studies show that aerobic exercise decreases abdominal fat. As such, the types and doses of exercise which are the most effective for decreasing fat tissue need to be understood to the general population. Walking represents a popular, convenient and relatively safe form of activity that can easily be incorporated into weight management programs for overweight and obese people. To enhance individuals’ time spent exercising, can loading the extremities while walking provide significant physiologic benefits to their daily exercise routine?

PURPOSE

Therefore, the purpose of the study was to determine the effect of additional weights on the wrist and ankle during a moderate walking exercise on the treadmill in the whole‐body energy expenditure (EE) and fat utilization. We hypothesized that 1) there would be no difference in energy (caloric) expenditure with or without additional weights on the ankle or the wrist in overweight/obese adults, 2) there would be no difference in fat utilization with or without additional weights on the ankle or the wrist in overweight/obese adults.

METHODS

This study was set as randomized crossover design. Eleven relatively healthy overweight/obese individuals (BMI ≥ 25 kg/m2 and ≤35 kg/m2 and 18–35 yrs.) were recruited. Each participant visited 5 times. The first visit consisted of a maximal aerobic fitness test (VO2 max). The second visit consisted of finding the participant’s treadmill speed that correlates with 40% of the VO2 max. The third visit consisted of walking for thirty minutes at 40% of their VO2 max without any weights added. The fourth and fifth visits consisted of the same procedure as the third visit, only with the additional weight (1.5% of body weight) added to each limb on either the ankles or wrists. The order in which the ankle and wrist trials occur was randomly assigned. EE and fat utilization were determined via indirect calorimetry. One‐way RM ANOVA was used to determine differences in energy expenditure and fat utilization between walking conditions.

RESULTS

The net rate of EE (kcal/min) during a moderate walking exercise was significantly increased with additional weights on the ankle (5.93±0.56kcal/min), compared to no weights added (4.95±0.49kcal/min) and additional weights on the wrist (5.41±0.59kcal/min). However, the net rate of fat utilization during walking was not different in additional weights on the ankle and wrist (0.30±0.13g/min and 0.30±0.16g/min, respectively), compared to no weights added (0.27±0.10g/min) during walking.

CONCLUSION

Our data show that the energy expenditure associated with walking is higher when additional weights are added especially on the ankle, but whole‐body fat usage during walking is similar with or without weights added on the ankle or wrist. Thus, these findings may provide a better walking strategy to spend more calories, thereby reducing body weight potentially in obese people and maintaining a healthy body weight in normal individuals.