Exercise Snacking and Cardiometabolic Health

Summary

Regular physical activity is associated with numerous health benefits, yet many young adults do not achieve recommended levels of physical activity. Exercise snacking, which involves performing brief bouts of physical activity throughout the day, may provide a practical alternative to traditional exercise programs by making physical activity easier to incorporate into daily routines. This randomized controlled trial will evaluate whether a 12-week exercise snacking intervention improves physical activity levels, aerobic fitness, cardiometabolic health, and psychological well-being in insufficiently active young adults. Participants will be randomly assigned to either an exercise snacking intervention or a usual behavior control group. Assessments will be completed at baseline, after the 12-week intervention, and after an additional 12-week follow-up period to determine whether any changes are maintained after the intervention ends. The study will measure physical activity using wearable activity monitors and assess aerobic fitness, body composition, blood pressure, blood lipids, glucose, exercise motivation, affective responses to exercise, and mental well-being. The findings will help determine whether exercise snacking is an effective and sustainable strategy for improving health in young adults and may inform future physical activity recommendations and interventions

Detailed Description

Regular physical activity reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity, and other chronic health conditions. Despite these well-established benefits, many young adults do not achieve recommended levels of physical activity. Commonly reported barriers include limited time, competing academic or work demands, and difficulty maintaining structured exercise programs. Exercise snacking, defined as accumulating multiple brief bouts of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity throughout the day, has emerged as a potential strategy for increasing physical activity while minimizing many of the barriers associated with traditional exercise programs. Although short bouts of physical activity have demonstrated favorable acute physiological effects, relatively few randomized controlled trials have evaluated whether exercise snacking produces sustained improvements in objectively measured physical activity, physical fitness, cardiometabolic health, and psychological outcomes in free-living young adults. The purpose of this study is to determine whether a 12-week exercise snacking intervention improves physical activity behavior, aerobic fitness, cardiometabolic health, exercise motivation, affective responses to physical activity, and psychological well-being compared with a usual behavior control group. Participants will be randomly assigned to either an exercise snacking intervention or a control condition. Following completion of the intervention, participants will be observed for an additional 12 weeks to evaluate the maintenance of behavioral and physiological changes after structured support is withdrawn. The primary objectives are to determine whether exercise snacking increases objectively measured physical activity and improves aerobic fitness. Secondary objectives are to evaluate changes in body composition, blood pressure, fasting cardiometabolic biomarkers, exercise motivation, affective responses to exercise, and psychological well-being. Exploratory analyses will examine whether changes in motivation and affective responses are associated with long-term maintenance of physical activity during the follow-up period. This study will contribute to the growing evidence regarding practical, scalable approaches for increasing physical activity among young adults and may help inform future lifestyle interventions and public health recommendations aimed at promoting long-term engagement in regular physical activity

Eligibility Criteria

Interventions