Exercise Snacking and Cardiometabolic Health

July 21, 2026 updated by: Gregory Ruegsegger, University of Wisconsin, River Falls

Influence of Exercise Snacking on Cardiometabolic Health, Physical Activity, and Psychological Well-Being

Regular physical activity is associated with numerous health benefits, yet many young adults do not achieve recommended levels of physical activity. Exercise snacking, which involves performing brief bouts of physical activity throughout the day, may provide a practical alternative to traditional exercise programs by making physical activity easier to incorporate into daily routines.

This randomized controlled trial will evaluate whether a 12-week exercise snacking intervention improves physical activity levels, aerobic fitness, cardiometabolic health, and psychological well-being in insufficiently active young adults. Participants will be randomly assigned to either an exercise snacking intervention or a usual behavior control group. Assessments will be completed at baseline, after the 12-week intervention, and after an additional 12-week follow-up period to determine whether any changes are maintained after the intervention ends.

The study will measure physical activity using wearable activity monitors and assess aerobic fitness, body composition, blood pressure, blood lipids, glucose, exercise motivation, affective responses to exercise, and mental well-being. The findings will help determine whether exercise snacking is an effective and sustainable strategy for improving health in young adults and may inform future physical activity recommendations and interventions

Study Overview

Status

Recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Regular physical activity reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity, and other chronic health conditions. Despite these well-established benefits, many young adults do not achieve recommended levels of physical activity. Commonly reported barriers include limited time, competing academic or work demands, and difficulty maintaining structured exercise programs.

Exercise snacking, defined as accumulating multiple brief bouts of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity throughout the day, has emerged as a potential strategy for increasing physical activity while minimizing many of the barriers associated with traditional exercise programs. Although short bouts of physical activity have demonstrated favorable acute physiological effects, relatively few randomized controlled trials have evaluated whether exercise snacking produces sustained improvements in objectively measured physical activity, physical fitness, cardiometabolic health, and psychological outcomes in free-living young adults.

The purpose of this study is to determine whether a 12-week exercise snacking intervention improves physical activity behavior, aerobic fitness, cardiometabolic health, exercise motivation, affective responses to physical activity, and psychological well-being compared with a usual behavior control group. Participants will be randomly assigned to either an exercise snacking intervention or a control condition. Following completion of the intervention, participants will be observed for an additional 12 weeks to evaluate the maintenance of behavioral and physiological changes after structured support is withdrawn.

The primary objectives are to determine whether exercise snacking increases objectively measured physical activity and improves aerobic fitness. Secondary objectives are to evaluate changes in body composition, blood pressure, fasting cardiometabolic biomarkers, exercise motivation, affective responses to exercise, and psychological well-being. Exploratory analyses will examine whether changes in motivation and affective responses are associated with long-term maintenance of physical activity during the follow-up period.

This study will contribute to the growing evidence regarding practical, scalable approaches for increasing physical activity among young adults and may help inform future lifestyle interventions and public health recommendations aimed at promoting long-term engagement in regular physical activity

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

60

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

Study Contact Backup

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Wisconsin
      • River Falls, Wisconsin, United States, 54022
        • Recruiting
        • University of Wisconsin-River Falls
        • Contact:
        • Contact:
        • Principal Investigator:
          • Gregory Ruegsegger, PhD

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Age 18-60 years.
  • Body mass index (BMI) ≥18.5 kg/m².
  • Insufficiently physically active, defined as generally not meeting current physical activity guidelines for moderate-to-vigorous physical activity.
  • Able to safely participate in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity as determined by study screening procedures, including completion of the Physical - Activity Readiness Questionnaire (PAR-Q+) and health history review.
  • Willing and able to provide written informed consent.
  • Willing to complete all study visits, wear activity monitors, and comply with study procedures.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Known cardiovascular, pulmonary, metabolic, neurological, orthopedic, or other medical conditions that would make participation in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity unsafe.
  • Resting heart rate >100 beats/minute at screening.
  • Resting blood pressure >160/100 mmHg at screening.
  • Clinically significant electrocardiogram (ECG) abnormalities identified during screening that require medical evaluation.
  • Current participation in regular structured physical activity that meets or exceeds recommended physical activity guidelines.
  • Physical limitations or injuries that preclude safe participation in the intervention or fitness testing.
  • Moderate-to-severe psychological distress or other mental health concerns identified during screening that require referral or would make study participation inappropriate.
  • Pregnancy or any other condition judged by the investigators to make participation unsafe or interfere with completion of study procedures.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Basic Science
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Exercise Snacking
Participants assigned to the exercise snacking group will complete a 12-week intervention consisting of multiple brief bouts (approximately 1-3 minutes each) of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity performed throughout the day. Participants will receive written instructions, examples of appropriate exercise snacks, and periodic check-ins to support adherence. The intervention is designed to increase daily physical activity by integrating short bouts of exercise into normal daily routines.
Behavioral: Exercise Snacking
Participants assigned to the intervention group will complete multiple brief bouts of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity throughout each day for 12 weeks. Each exercise snack will typically last approximately 1-3 minutes and may include activities such as stair climbing, brisk walking, repeated sit-to-stands, body-weight squats, or other moderate-to-vigorous activities that can be incorporated into daily routines. Participants will receive standardized written instructions, examples of exercise snacks, and periodic follow-up visits to monitor adherence and reinforce study procedures.
No Intervention: Usual Behavior Control
Participants assigned to the control group will continue their usual daily activities for 12 weeks and will not receive instruction regarding exercise snacking or any structured physical activity program during the intervention period. They will complete the same outcome assessments as participants in the intervention group.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Moderate-to-Vigorous Physical Activity
Time Frame: Baseline, Week 12, and Week 24
Average daily minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity measured objectively using an accelerometer worn for seven consecutive days.
Baseline, Week 12, and Week 24

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Body Fat Percentage
Time Frame: Baseline, Week 12, Week 24
Body composition measured using air displacement plethysmography (BodPod).
Baseline, Week 12, Week 24
Aerobic Fitness
Time Frame: Baseline, Week 12, and Week 24
Aerobic fitness assessed during a submaximal cycle ergometer exercise test with respiratory gas analysis using a metabolic measurement system.
Baseline, Week 12, and Week 24
Fasting Blood Glucose
Time Frame: Baseline, Week 12, Week 24
Capillary fasting glucose measured using the Cholestech LDX analyzer.
Baseline, Week 12, Week 24
Blood Lipid Profile
Time Frame: Baseline, Week 12, Week 24
Total cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, and triglycerides measured from fasting capillary blood samples.
Baseline, Week 12, Week 24
Exercise Motivation
Time Frame: Baseline, Week 12, Week 24
Exercise motivation will be assessed using the 24-item Behavioral Regulation in Exercise Questionnaire-3 (BREQ-3). The questionnaire produces six subscale scores: amotivation, external regulation, introjected regulation, identified regulation, integrated regulation, and intrinsic regulation. Each subscale is calculated as the mean of four items and ranges from 0 to 4. Higher scores indicate a greater degree of the corresponding type of exercise motivation; therefore, higher scores do not uniformly represent a better or worse outcome.
Baseline, Week 12, Week 24
Psychological Well-Being
Time Frame: Baseline, Week 12, Week 24
Psychological well-being will be assessed using the World Health Organization-Five Well-Being Index (WHO-5). The five items are summed to produce a raw total score ranging from 0 to 25. Higher scores indicate better psychological well-being.
Baseline, Week 12, Week 24
Depressive Symptoms
Time Frame: Baseline, Week 12, Week 24
Depressive symptoms will be assessed using the 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9). Items are summed to produce a total score ranging from 0 to 27. Higher scores indicate more severe depressive symptoms and therefore a worse outcome.
Baseline, Week 12, Week 24
Anxiety Symptoms
Time Frame: Baseline, Week 12, Week 24
Anxiety symptoms will be assessed using the 7-item Generalized Anxiety Disorder scale (GAD-7). Items are summed to produce a total score ranging from 0 to 21. Higher scores indicate more severe anxiety symptoms and therefore a worse outcome.
Baseline, Week 12, Week 24
Perceived Stress
Time Frame: Baseline, Week 12, Week 24
Perceived stress will be assessed using the 10-item Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10). Items are summed after reverse-scoring the positively stated items, producing a total score ranging from 0 to 40. Higher scores indicate greater perceived stress and therefore a worse outcome.
Baseline, Week 12, Week 24

Other Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Everyday Cognitive Failures
Time Frame: Baseline, Week 12, Week 24
Everyday cognitive failures will be assessed using the 25-item Cognitive Failures Questionnaire (CFQ). Items are summed to produce a total score ranging from 0 to 100. Higher scores indicate a greater frequency of everyday cognitive failures and therefore a worse outcome.
Baseline, Week 12, Week 24
Exercise-Related Affective Valence
Time Frame: Baseline, Week 12, Week 24
Exercise-related affective valence will be assessed using the single-item Feeling Scale. Responses range from -5 ("very bad") to +5 ("very good"), with 0 representing "neutral." Higher scores indicate more positive affective valence and therefore a better outcome.
Baseline, Week 12, Week 24
Academic engagement (UWES-S)
Time Frame: Baseline, Week 12, Week 24
Academic engagement will be assessed using the 9-item Utrecht Work Engagement Scale for Students (UWES-S-9), which measures vigor, dedication, and absorption in academic activities. Each item is scored from 0 ("never") to 6 ("always/every day"). Higher scores indicate greater academic engagement and therefore a better outcome.
Baseline, Week 12, Week 24

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

University of Wisconsin, River Falls

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Gregory Ruegsegger, PhD, University of Wisconsin, River Falls

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Estimated)

August 1, 2026

Primary Completion (Estimated)

December 31, 2027

Study Completion (Estimated)

December 31, 2027

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

July 16, 2026

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

July 16, 2026

First Posted (Actual)

July 21, 2026

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

July 23, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

July 21, 2026

Last Verified

July 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 2026-33

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

YES

IPD Plan Description

De-identified individual participant data underlying the results reported in publications arising from this study may be shared with qualified researchers upon reasonable request to the Principal Investigator. Data will become available beginning six months after publication of the primary study results and remain available for up to five years. Requests should include a brief research proposal and analysis plan and will be evaluated based on scientific merit and the proposed use of the data. When applicable, a data use agreement will be required before data are shared. The study protocol, statistical analysis plan, data dictionary, and analytic code (if applicable) may also be made available. All data sharing will comply with institutional policies and applicable regulations to protect participant confidentiality.

IPD Sharing Time Frame

De-identified individual participant data and supporting documentation will be available beginning six months after publication of the primary study results and will remain available for five years thereafter.

IPD Sharing Access Criteria

De-identified individual participant data, the study protocol, statistical analysis plan, and analytic code may be made available to qualified researchers upon reasonable request to the Principal Investigator. Requests should include a brief research proposal and analysis plan and will be evaluated based on scientific merit, investigator qualifications, and the proposed use of the data. When applicable, a data use agreement will be required prior to data sharing. All shared data will be de-identified and released in accordance with institutional policies and applicable regulations to protect participant confidentiality.

IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type

  • STUDY_PROTOCOL
  • SAP
  • ANALYTIC_CODE

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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