JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Background:

Rates of obesity worldwide continue to increase and are associated with myriad health risks and socioeconomic burden. Exercise is a traditional treatment in adults with obesity to increase physical activity levels, improve cardiorespiratory fitness, and reduce cardiometabolic risk. However, many people living with obesity do not engage in enough physical activity to achieve health benefits and often cite perceived lack of time, access to equipment, and stigma as barriers. “Exercise snacks” are short (~1 min) isolated bouts of vigorous exercise performed sporadically throughout the day that may be a viable strategy to improve fitness and cardiometabolic health. It is unknown whether exercise snacks are a feasible option in the real-world for people living with obesity.

Objective:

Objective:

To conduct a pilot randomized clinical trial (RCT) to determine the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of a 12-week smartphone application-supported exercise snacks intervention with behaviour change counselling for improving cardiorespiratory fitness and other indices of cardiometabolic health in previously inactive adults living with obesity.

Methods:

Methods:

A two-site, parallel arm, RCT will be conducted in Kelowna and Hamilton, Canada. Eighty inactive adults living with obesity will be randomized to an Exercise Snacks or Stretching/Mobility Exercise Comparator group for 12-weeks. The former will complete 4 × 1-minute bouts of vigorous exercise on at least 5 days per week, and the latter will perform mobility/stretching exercises using the same schedule. Interventions will be delivered through a customized smartphone mobile application and will be tailored to the participants’ schedules via onboarding counselling sessions with ongoing telephone check-in call support at weeks 1, 2, 4, and 8. This pilot RCT will focus on feasibility as reflected by rates of recruitment, adherence, and drop-out. We will also assess cardiorespiratory fitness, anthropometric markers, and routine blood health markers (e.g., glucose, insulin) at baseline and post-intervention.

Results:

Results:

Recruitment began in July 2025 (Kelowna) and November 2025 (Hamilton). As of March 31st, 2026, we have enrolled 65 participants (UBC n=51, McMaster n=14).

Conclusions:

Conclusions:

This study will test an RCT protocol, provide evidence on the feasibility of exercise snacks in inactive adults living with obesity, and report preliminary effect size estimates for their ability to improve cardiometabolic health. Clinical Trial: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT06924346