How Many Calories Are Burned Wearing A Weight Vest?

How Many Calories Are Burned Wearing A Weight Vest?

How Many Calories Are Burned Wearing A Weight Vest?
Calories Burned Wearing A Weighted Walking Vest

Calories Burned Wearing A Weighted Vest

Remember when Oprah lost weight?

She went from 237 pounds to 160 pounds.  Oprah looked like a new woman in her skinny jeans hauling pounds of lard representing her weight loss in a red wheelbarrow.  The audience was properly appalled at the white globs of fat. 

With 77 pounds lost,  Oprah’s had more energy, reduced her cardio vascular disease risk and she looked great.  

For those of us into walking it was great news to hear that she had lost all the weight by eating healthy combined with a 10,000 step program.  How could there be any negatives to her dramatic change?

Unfortunately there was one huge downside to her 77 pound weight loss . . .  Oprah would now burn significantly fewer calories doing any task throughout her day now that her fat load was gone. 

Her weight loss would work against her.  Losing all this weight was more then a pregnant woman’s weight loss after having a baby.  Oprah was used to eating calories to maintain her body weight at 77 pounds heavier.

Calories Burned After Weight Loss

When Oprah regained her weight, her magazine published her before and after picture with a feature article on her setback

“How Did I Let This Happen Again?”   Oprah  says that her hypothyroid condition led to her weight gain.  Since I am hypothyroid, I can relate to her problem.  Your metabolism is slower and if you have bad eating and sleeping habits you will be tired.  However, if you look at starving children in other parts of the world, they could be hypothyroid but the simple reality is that the bottomline for their condition is lack of calories consumed for their calories burned. 

About the same time that Oprah lost weight, another celebrity, Valerie Bertinelli, lost a huge amount of weight.  However, she realized that as she took off her pounds it was harder for her to continue losing.  

Valerie Bertinelli compensated for her lost pounds by adding some weight back using a Debbie Rocker weight vest. 

You can see Valerie Bertinelli’s video on Rachel Ray’s show about the weight vest here.  Thought it would be interesting for our visitors to see the additional calories burned adding a weight vest to your workout program

According to the CDC, the average American man weighs 194.7 lbs and the average American woman weighs 164.7 lbs so taking the average of the average  is 180 lbs.    Wow . . . Americans are pretty hefty.

Debbie Rocker’s Weighted Walk Vest comes with 4 lbs standard and you can add up to 16 lbs of weights.

Taking this average weight of an American and using MyFitness Pal’s fitness calorie calculator, these are the results of additional calories burned adding various weights to the vest. 

Calories Burned in 60 Minutes of Activity With and Without A Weighted Debbie Rocker Vest

60 Minutes of Activity 180 lbs + No Vest 180 + 4 lbs Vest 180 + 8 lbs Vest 180 + 16 lbs Vest 
Calories Burned Walking 3 mph 269 275 281 293
Calories Burned Walking 4 mph 408 417 426 445
Calories Burned Walking 5 mph 653 668 682 711
Calories Burned Walking Up Stairs 653 668 682 711

As you can see, a 180 lb person adding 16 lbs to a weighted vest will burn 58 more calories per hour walking upstairs.  Personally, I would stop at 8 lbs but that is still 29 more calories per hour. 

You will, also, build muscle quicker which in turn will increase your metabolism which in turn will burn more calories. 

You can wear your weighted vest for hours so anything you do . . . working, gardening, cooking, cleaning or walking will burn more calories.  Normal activities get an immediate boost in calorie expenditure.  Which is a really cool trick whether you are losing weight or trying to maintain your achieved weight loss goal.


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  1. Jill 8 years ago

    Thanks for the calorie calculations for climbing stairs and walking. I wear a walking vest so this information is helpful.

  2. I think using a weight vest is a great idea though I would probably start off without it and then as you start to lose weight gradually add weights to compensate for equal amounts of weight you lost.

    That way you will always be carrying the same weight, rather than upping you weight at the start which might end up hurting your knees and lower legs.

    • BJ 8 years ago

      Calories Burned . . . thanks for contributing with a great suggestion to start slow with the weights to compensate for weight lost.

  3. Sandra 8 years ago

    I wear a weight vest when I walk. I agree that it helps burn more calories. Have recommended vests to friends.

  4. Oprah Fan 8 years ago

    I remember Oprah’s weight loss. The weight loss change was inspiring. It was sad when she gained her weight back. Losing weight isn’t easy.

  5. Irene 8 years ago

    Thanks for the calories burned wearing a weight vest. Good suggestion.

  6. Anne 8 years ago

    If Oprah had stuck to wearing a weight vest, exercising and eating right rather than going on a starvation diet she would still be thin. Burning calories through exercise weather you wear a weight vest or just walk is the healthy way to go.

  7. Wally 8 years ago

    Weariing a weight vest to help you burn calories is fine when it is cool out but in the summer they are way too hot.

    • Author
      BJ 8 years ago

      Since it is sleeveless, my weight vest doesn’t seem to make me feel the heat any more or less. There are many summer days in the south that are very hot. Sweltering heat doesn’t motivate me to walk.

      On those days, I use my treadmill or walk inside air conditioned buildings.

  8. Jane Paulson 7 years ago

    I often wear my weight vest. Seems to help me burn more calories.

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