ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Sedentary lifestyles and poor physical fitness are major contributors to the current obesity and cardiovascular disease pandemic. HYPOTHESIS: Daily physical activity and cardiorespiratory fitness are correlated in morbidly obese individuals in their free-living environment. METHODS: Ten morbidly obese participants continuously wore an activity sensor that measured caloric expenditure, minute-by-minute physical activity, and steps/day over a 72-h period. Following collection of the device data, structured cardiorespiratory fitness testing was performed on each subject. RESULTS: Mean caloric expenditure for all individuals was 2,668+/-481 kcal/d. On average, subjects took 3,763+/-2,223 steps. On average 23 h and 51.6 min per d were spent sleeping or engaged in sedentary activity (<3 metabolic equivalents [METs]) and the remaining 8.4 min were spent in moderate activity (3-6 METs). Average peak VO2 was 16.8+/-4.7 mL/kg/min. Higher peak VO2 correlated with higher total caloric expenditure (TCE; r=0.628, p=0.05) and trended with higher steps/day (r=0.591, p=0.07). CONCLUSIONS: Most morbidly obese participants in this study were markedly sedentary. These study results may provide important links between obesity, poor fitness, and cardiovascular disease.
