A Self-Paced Walk Test for Individual Calibration of Heart Rate to Energy Expenditure

Introduction : Estimating free-living physical activity (PA) with continuous heart rate (HR) monitoring is challenging due to individual variation in the relationship between HR and energy expenditure. This variation can be captured through individual calibration with graded exercise tests, but structured tests with prescribed load require medical screening and are not always feasible in population settings. We present and evaluate an individual calibration method using HR response to a less demanding self-paced walk test. Methods : Six hundred and forty-three participants from the Fenland Study (Cambridgeshire, the United Kingdom) completed a 200-m self-paced walk test, a treadmill test, and 1 week of continuous HR and accelerometry monitoring. Mixed-effects regression was used to derive a walk test calibration model from HR response to the walk using treadmill-based parameters as criterion. Free-living PA estimates from the calibration model were compared with treadmill-calibrated and non-exercise-calibrated estimates. Results : Walk calibration captured 57% of the variance in the HR–energy expenditure relationship determined by the treadmill test. Applying walk calibration to data from free-living yielded similar PA estimates to those using treadmill calibration (52.7 vs. 52.0 kJ·kg −1 ·day −1 ; mean difference: 0.7 kJ·kg −1 ·day −1 , 95% confidence interval [−0.0, 1.5]) and high correlation ( r = .89). Individual differences were observed (root mean square error: 10.0 kJ·kg −1 ·day −1 ; 95% limits of agreement: −20.6, 19.1 kJ·kg −1 ·day −1 ). Walk calibration improved precision by 29% compared with nonexercise group calibration (root mean square error: 14.0 kJ·kg −1 ·day −1 ; 95% limits of agreement: −30.4, 24.5 kJ·kg −1 ·day −1 ). Conclusions : A 200-m self-paced walk test captures between-individual variation in the HR–energy expenditure relationship and facilitates estimation of free-living PA in population settings.