Adherence to intermittent and continuous aerobic exercise prescription in overweight and obese women, a randomized clinical trial

Objectives : Obesity and sedentary lifestyle are major public health problems and are associated with many serious health conditions. It is suggested that short sessions of exercise might be considered as a more applicable method in attracting sedentary people to physical activity in comparison to long sessions of physical activity. The objective of this study was to compare the effect of two different aerobic exercise programs (intermittent and continuous brisk walking) on adherence and attrition in overweight and obese sedentary females. Methods: Fifteen individuals in the intermittent group performed 40 minutes medium intensity exercise in 3 sessions per day, for 5 days per week; the 15 participants of the continuous group exercised a single 40-minute session per day, 5 days per week. The adherence and attrition of all the participants were assessed in 12 weeks. Resultes: Regarding adherence to prescribed activity in terms of days and minutes per week, for the intermittent and continuous groups, no significant differences were found between the groups. However, comparing the sessions of exercise per week it was found that participants in the continuous group significantly adhered more accurately to their prescribed sessions per week (average sessions per week was 5 for the continuous group, 15 for the intermittent group: 0.96 and 0.66 respectively) (p=0.02). There was no significant difference between the groups regarding adherence to exercise intensity prescription . Conclusion: It seems that adherence rate for the intermittent and continuous exercise groups can be excellent. However, with increasing the number of the sessions per day, the intermittent exercise group had lower adherence to three short sessions per day than one long session in the continuous exercise group.