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Daily physical activity assessment: what is the importance of upper limb movements vs whole body movements?

International Journal of Obesity volume 28, pages 1105–1110 (2004)Cite this article

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: The movement of the upper limbs (eg fidgeting-like activities) is a meaningful component of nonexercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT). This study examined the relationship between upper limb movements and whole body trunk movements, by simultaneously measuring energy expenditure during the course of the day.

DESIGN: A cross-sectional study consisting of 88 subjects with a wide range in body mass index (17.3–32.5 kg/m2). The energy expenditure over a 24-h period was measured in a large respiratory chamber. The body movements were assessed by two uniaxial-accelerometers during daytime, one on the waist and the other on the dominant arm. The accelerometry scores from level 0 (=immobile) up to level 9 (=maximal intensity) were recorded. The activities of subjects were classified into eight categories: walking at two speeds on a horizontal treadmill (A & B), ambling (C), self-care tasks (D), desk work (E), meals (F), reading (G), watching TV (H).

RESULTS: There was a significant relationship between the accelerometry scores from the waist (ACwaist) and that from the wrist (ACwrist) over the daytime period (R2=0.64; P<0.001). The ACwrist was systematically higher than the ACwaist during sedentary activities, whereas it was the reverse for walking activities. ACwrist to ACwaist ratio of activities E–H were above 1.0 and for walking activities (A–C) were below 1.0. A multiple regression analysis for predicting daytime energy expenditure revealed that the explained variance improved by 2% only when the ACwrist was added as a second predictor in addition to the ACwaist. This indicates that the effect of the ACwrist for predicting energy expenditure was of limited importance in our conditions of measurement.

CONCLUSIONS: The acceleration of the upper limbs which includes fidgeting is more elevated than that of the whole body for sitting/lying down activities. However, their contribution to energy expenditure is lower than whole body trunk movements, thus indicating that the weight-bearing locomotion activities may be a key component of NEAT. However, its contribution may depend on the total duration of the upper limb movements during the course of the day.

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Acknowledgements

This work was in part supported by the Medical Frontier Strategy Research Grants H13-21th-31 from Japanese Ministry of Health Labor and Welfare.

We are grateful to the participants for their cooperation. We thank the Japanese associations/groups in Switzerland, particularly The Japan Club of Geneva, The Swiss–Japanese Journal Grüezi and The Swiss Happy Net (http://www.swippy.ch), and the people who helped in the recruiting process of the subjects. We are grateful to Assistant Professor Takuya Yahiro and the staff at the Laboratory of Exercise Physiology, Faculty of Sports and Health Science, Fukuoka University for their valuable assistance in making the preparations for this study. We would also like to acknowledge the contribution of Professor Munehiro Shindo at the Fukuoka University; Professor Yutaka Yoshitake, PhD, at the National Institute of Fitness and Sports in Kanoya; Mayumi Yoshioka, PhD, at the Laval University Medical Center and Laval University and thank them for their support.

A part of this study was presented at 12th European Congress on Obesity in Helsinki, Finland (ECO2003).23

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physiology, Faculty of Biology and Medicine, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland

    H Kumahara & Y Schutz

  2. Laboratory of Exercise Physiology, Faculty of Sports and Health Science, Fukuoka University, Fukuoka, Japan

    H Tanaka

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  1. H Kumahara
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  2. H Tanaka
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  3. Y Schutz
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Correspondence to Y Schutz.

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Kumahara, H., Tanaka, H. & Schutz, Y. Daily physical activity assessment: what is the importance of upper limb movements vs whole body movements?. Int J Obes 28, 1105–1110 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ijo.0802712

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