Energy cost of youth obesity exercise modes.

The purpose of this study was to assess the energy expenditure (EE) of different exercise intervention modes commonly employed in youth obesity programs. Individual heart rate (HR) - EE relationships were obtained in 20 obese adolescents (13.6±1.4 years, BMI 31.8±4.1 kg·m(-2), peak VO(2) 30.1±4.9 ml·kg(-1)·min(-1)) attending inpatient comprehensive multidisciplinary intervention and EE was calculated from HR during different exercise therapy modes. Per week, a cumulative EE above baseline of 7 829±2 229 kJ·week(-1) was induced by 7.5 h of structured exercise intervention. EE [kJ·kg(-1)·h(-1)] of walking (14.0±2.9) differed significantly from swimming (19.9±5.9), water games (18.0±4.4), 65-85 W cycle ergometry (19.6±3.7), strength/stability circuit (18.9±3.7), small group games/relays (19.0±5.4) and team sports (20.6±7.0) (p<0.05). Since the energy cost of all exercise modes except walking was comparable, priority should be given to the adolescents' preferences to promote long-term activity behaviour change. © Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.