Energy expenditure of obese, overweight, and normal weight females during lifestyle physical activities

Aull, J.L. and Rowe, D.A. and Hickner, R.C. and Malinauskas, B.M. and Mahar, M.T. (2008) Energy expenditure of obese, overweight, and normal weight females during lifestyle physical activities. International Journal of Pediatric Obesity, 3 (3). pp. 177-185. ISSN 1747-7166

Abstract

To quantify energy expenditure of various lifestyle physical activities of obese, overweight, and normal-weight girls. In total, fifty-five girls participated in six activities: a treadmill walk at 4.0 km·hr-1, run, football throw, walk in open area, cycle, and riding a scooter. Intensities for all activities except the treadmill walk were self-selected. Energy expenditure was measured using the COSMED K4b2 portable metabolic system. Analyses of variance were used to compare the three groups (obese n=11, overweight n=16, and normal weight n=28) on relative ./SPOB_A_287654_O_XML_IMAGES/SPOB_A_287654_O_ILM0001.gif (ml·kg-1·min-1 and ml·FFM-1·min-1), and absolute energy expenditure (kJ·min-1). Magnitudes of the mean differences were examined using Cohen's delta (ES). Relative ./SPOB_A_287654_O_XML_IMAGES/SPOB_A_287654_O_ILM0002.gif (ml·FFM-1·min-1) was not significantly different (p>0.05) among the groups for any activity. Obese girls expended more energy (p<0.05) than normal-weight girls on all weight bearing activities. These differences were large (ES≥0.91). The differences in kJ·min-1 between the obese and normal weight groups for the bicycle and scooter activities were moderate to large (ES≥0.56), although not statistically significant. The overweight group expended more energy than the normal weight group and less energy than the obese group on all activities (ES=0.17 to 1.82), although these differences were generally not statistically significant. The oxygen costs of various activities are similar among obese, overweight, and normal-weight girls when expressed relative to fat-free mass. When engaging in self-selected levels of activity, obese girls have a higher absolute energy expenditure than normal-weight girls.

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