RESUMO
OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to assess energy expenditure and metabolic cost (METs) of walking activities of college students and to compare treadmill based walking with self-selected hallway walking. METHODS: Thirty subjects (mean age 23.4 ± 1.6 years) completed eight walking activities. Five treadmill walking activities (TW2.4, TW3.2, TW4.0, TW4.8, TW5.6) were followed by three self-selected hallway walking activities, namely, walk as if you were walking and talking with a friend: HWL (leisurely), walk as if you were hurrying across the street at a cross-walk: HWB (brisk) and walk as fast as you can but do not run: HWF (fast) were performed by each subject. Energy expenditure was measured using a portable metabolic system and accelerometers. RESULTS: Except for HWF (fast) activity, energy expenditures of all other walking activities measured were higher in male than in female subjects. The lowest energy expenditure and METs were observed in TW2.4 (3.65 ± 0.84 kcal/min and 2.88 ± 0.26 METs in male), HWL (leisurely) (2.85 ± 0.70 kcal/min and 3.20 ± 0.57 METs in female), and the highest rates were observed in HWF (fast) (7.72 ± 2.81 kcal/min, 5.84 ± 1.84 METs in male, 6.65 ± 1.57 kcal/min, 7.13 ± 0.68 METs in female). Regarding the comparison of treadmill-based walking activities and self-selected walking, the energy expenditure of HWL (leisurely) was not significantly different from that of TW2.4. In case of male, no significant difference was observed between energy costs of HWB (brisk), HWF (fast) and TW5.6 activities, whereas in female, energy expenditures during HWB (brisk) and HWF (fast) were significantly different from that of TW5.6. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, we observed that energy expenditure from self-selected walking activities of college students was comparable with treadmill-based activities at specific speeds. Our results suggested that a practicing leisurely or brisk walking for a minimum of 150 minutes per week by both male and female college students enable them to meet recommendations from the Physical activity guide for Koreans.