Three supervised 1-minute bouts per day of stair climbing, jump squats, and high knees at 77%–95% of maximum heart rate, separated by 1–4 hours, on 3 days per week
Exercise Snacks
Exercise Snacks Improve Fitness in Women With Obesity
In 27 women with overweight or obesity, six weeks of brief, high-intensity exercise snacks improved fitness and body-composition measures compared with a nonexercising control group, while metabolic variables did not change.
Study overview
- Study title
- Feasibility and Effects of Exercise Snacks on Fitness and Body Composition in Women With Overweight or Obesity: A Randomized Controlled Trial.
- Study authors
- Jieun Park, Minsub Han, Seungho Lee, JeongEun Yun, Serim Cho, SoJung Lee
- Population
- Women with overweight or obesity; mean age 31.5 years and mean BMI 25.5 kg/m² among 27 randomized participants
- Sample size
- 27
- Duration
- 6 weeks
- Comparator
- Nonexercising control group
- Outcomes
- cardiorespiratory fitness, muscular strength, body weight, percent body fat, waist circumference, metabolic variables
Intervention
Main findings
Among the 24 participants who completed the study, exercise snacks improved body weight, percent body fat, waist circumference, cardiorespiratory fitness, and muscular strength compared with the control condition based on significant group-by-time effects; metabolic variables remained unchanged.
What this may mean in practice
Snacksmate's reading of the evidence — not a quotation from the original paper.
For these women, six weeks of brief, supervised high-intensity exercise snacks were associated with better fitness and body-composition outcomes than no exercise, but metabolic measures did not change. The findings come from a small randomized trial.
Original study
What can you take from this?
The notes above are Snacksmate’s reading of this study, not personal advice.