Recommending Self-Paced Exercise among Overweight and Obese Adults: a Randomized Pilot Study

Abstract

Background: National guidelines call for exercise of at least moderate intensity; however, recommending self-paced exercise may lead to better adherence, particularly among overweight and obese adults. Purpose: Test proof-of-concept for recommending self-paced exercise among overweight adults. Methods: Fifty-nine healthy, low-active (exercise <60 min/week), overweight (Body Mass Index: 25.0-39.9) adults (18-65) received a six-month print-based exercise promotion program with the goal of walking 30-60 min/day. Participants were surreptitiously randomly assigned to receive a recommendation for either self-paced (n=30) or moderate (64-76% maximum heart rate; n=29) intensity exercise. All participants used electronic diaries and heart rate monitors to track exercise frequency, duration, and intensity. Results: The self-paced condition reported more min/week of walking (f2=0.17, p=.045) and a trend toward greater exercise-related energy expenditure/week (f2=0.12; p=0.243), corresponding to approximately 26 additional min/week and 83 additional kcals/week over six months. Conclusions: Explicit recommendation for self-paced exercise may improve adherence to exercise programs among overweight and obese adults.

Cardiorespiratory fitness moderates the effect of an affect-guided physical activity prescription: a pilot randomized controlled trial

“…This finding is consistent with previous research documenting the effects of self-selected vs. imposed intensity on PA (Ekkekakis et al, 2008(Ekkekakis et al, , 2011Hamlyn-Williams et al, 2014;Rose & Parfitt, 2012;VazouEkkekakis & Ekkekakis, 2009) and work suggesting that this "at risk" group may benefit specifically from an affect-based exercise prescription (Ekkekakis & Lind, 2006;Ekkekakis et al, 2010). Moreover, the findings add to the growing body of evidence (Parfitt et al, , 2015Williams et al, 2015) supporting the use of affective factors as a primary method of exercise prescription (Garber et al, 2011). However, the novel finding we report here extends previous research in demonstrating that the positive effect of an affect-guided prescription on PA is specific to those individuals for whom PA is more likely to be experienced as affectively unpleasant (i.e.…”

“…The promising findings from this pilot trial are consistent with similar studies that have shown the benefits of regulating exercise intensity using affect or perceived exertion (Parfitt et al, , 2015Williams et al, 2015) and add to the evidence base supporting the use of affect as a primary mode of exercise prescription. Overall, the study indicated the importance of the way in which PA is prescribed to inactive adults, with particular attention to matching the prescription to the level of CRF of the individual.…”

“…One previous study has shown that a focus on affect-regulated levels of exercise can lead to greater fitness at the conclusion of an eight-week program of supervised training in sedentary women (Parfitt, Alrumh, & Rowlands, 2012). Similarly, a six-month print-based exercise promotion program for overweight and obese adults was found to have better PA Downloaded by [University of Lethbridge] at 03:35 18 June 2016 outcomes for self-paced PA intensity levels than a similar program emphasizing moderate levels of PA, although the self-paced group did not focus specifically on maintaining a positive affective response (Williams et al, 2015). A third related study demonstrated that an exercise program focused on regulating perceived exertion (a different, but related construct to affective response) led to improved fitness and maintained exercise adherence for those assigned to regulate exertion at moderate levels (Parfitt, Olds, & Eston, 2015).…”

A case for leveraging integrated regulation strategies to optimize health benefits from self-determined exercise behavior

“…Williams and colleagues’ recent paper [1], Recommending self-paced exercise among overweight and obese adults: A randomized pilot study , extends research demonstrating positive associations between self-paced exercise and affective responses to, and perceived autonomy for exercise [2–4]. The authors found that low-active participants assigned to a self-paced walking prescription walked significantly more minutes per week than participants assigned to a moderate-intensity walking prescription.…”

“…Instead of prescribing moderate intensity exercise for a minimum of 150 minutes per week, perhaps we ought to encourage people to “do what feels good.” But, before we throw the exercise prescription baby out with the bathwater, note that just two weeks into the Williams et al study, participants in both conditions were already falling short of the goal to walk 150 minutes per week [1]. By six weeks, participants walked only 50% of this goal on average.…”