Are weighted vests worth it? • Stronger by Science

It seems like weighted vests are trending every few years. From being used as an accessory for rucking and endurance training to being promoted as a game-changing tool for fat loss, they’re always lingering. More recently, the increasing popularity of Hyrox training has given weighted vests a boost in popularity. The claims around weighted vests are often quite extreme, promising muscle building and bone strengthening effects, big increases in energy expenditure, and *insert typical reporting jargon we often see with any new fitness trend*.

But are weighted vests anything more than just another fitness tool for those who’re already lifting weights and are physically active?

Before we delve into the literature, I purchased a weighted vest a few years ago without conducting thorough due diligence. Intuition got the best of me, and I thought, “Hey, might as well add a bunch of weight to some of my walks for extra health gains.”

However, when looking to find literature to support what I thought made sense, I was surprised to see that there wasn’t much in support of weighted vests being a game changer for health gains as it pertains to walking while wearing one. A 2006 ​study of 10 people​ did report some effect of wearing a weighted vest at faster walking speeds on oxygen consumption and ​a study on older adults​ actually found that wearing a weighted vest didn’t really do much more for physical function than not wearing one. That said, there is some evidence suggesting that wearing a weighted vest may have beneficial effects on ​running economy in distance runners ​and a few proxies of performance ​in soccer players​. But as far as supercharging the health benefits of walking? As it stands, that doesn’t seem to be the case.

But what about weight maintenance or weight loss?​ A 2024 paper​ looked at the metabolic cost of walking with weighted vests and found that the energy cost of vest loading increased in a nonlinear fashion, being roughly proportional to the load carried. Mainstream media covered the study with titles along the lines of “Weighted walking found to increase energy burn by over 40%!” but the reality of things may not be as exciting as in the study.

The authors had active military-age men and women walk with either no vest or 22%, 44%, and 66% of their body mass, not a single weighted vest. To put this in perspective, ​in a study on older adults​ looking at the effect of weighted vests on weight loss and body composition, light vests were defined as 1% of the participants’ body weight and heavy vests as 11%. So, unless you’re planning on carrying around >40% of your body weight for long periods of time, you’re unlikely to burn more than a few extra calories. I get that in some cases, even a few extra calories may be meaningful, but it’s far from a game changer when it comes to weight loss.

Speaking of weight loss, in the study in older adults mentioned above, those who wore a “heavy” vest lost more body weight and fat mass while also gaining a little bit of fat-free mass. Contrastingly, ​a different study in older adults​, specifically looking at the effects of wearing a weighted vest for ~10 hours per day while following a low calorie diet, found no differences in weight lost or body composition changes between groups. Interestingly, and as published ​in a separate paper,​ those who wore the weighted vest managed to maintain better weight loss in the two years following the study.

Overall, weighted vests are likely not something you need to consider if you’re already physically active and engaging in resistance training. They may be a good way to “spice up” your cardio or even add resistance to some body weight exercises, but we still need a lot more research to suggest anything beyond that.