Energy expenditure during acute weight training exercises in healthy participants: A preliminary study

Energy expenditure during weight training exercises produces great fitness and health benefits for humans, but few studies have investigated energy expenditure directly during weight training. Therefore, in this study, we aimed to determine energy costs during three training sessions consisting of three different exercises. Ten participants were randomly allocated into two groups: An untrained (n = 5, with no weight training experience) and a trained group (n = 5, with some weight training experience). Each participant completed three training sessions on separate days. While wearing a mask for indirect calorimetric measurements, each participant participated in training sessions conducted with three dumbbell exercises: The bent-over row, deadlift, and lunge. Metabolic equivalents (METs), energy expenditure (EE), respiratory exchange ratio (RER), heart rate (HR), systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), and rate of perceived exertion (RPE) were measured. The total energy cost was calculated from the oxygen consumption (VO2) during each exercise. Our results showed that the METs of a single training session were 3.3 for the untrained group and 3.4 for the trained group, while the sum of the EE was 683–688 and 779–840 kcal, respectively. The physiological parameters, such as heart rate (p = 0.001 *) for the lunge and rate of perceived exertion (p = 0.005 *) for the bent-over row, changed significantly in both groups. It was concluded that the exercise protocol of this study involved a moderate intensity of 2.4–3.9 METs. The energy cost of each training exercise was between 179 and 291 kcal.