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Predicting cardiorespiratory fitness levels can be useful for measuring progress in an exercise program as well as for stratifying cardiovascular risk in asymptomatic adults. This study proposes a model to predict fitness level in terms of maximal oxygen uptake using anthropometric, heart rate, and step count data. The model was trained on a diverse cohort of 3115 healthy subjects (1035 women and 2080 men) aged 42 ± 10.6 years and tested on a cohort of 779 healthy subjects (260 women and 519 men) aged 42 ± 10.18 years. The developed model is capable of making accurate and reliable predictions with the average test set error of 3.946 ml/kg/min. The maximal oxygen uptake labels were obtained using wearable devices (Apple Watch and Garmin) during recorded workout sessions. Additionally, the model was validated on a sample of 10 subjects with maximal oxygen uptake determined directly using a treadmill protocol in a laboratory setting and showed an error of 4.982 ml/kg/min. Unlike most other models, which use accelerometer readings as additional input data, the proposed model relies solely on heart rate and step counts—data readily available on the majority of fitness trackers. The proposed model provides a point estimation and a probabilistic prediction of cardiorespiratory fitness level, thus it can estimate the prediction's uncertainty and construct confidence intervals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to evaluate the real intensity level of exercise in a sample of patients with chronic disease from obesity, rheumatology, hematology and other departments involved in a hospital-based program of adapted physical activity (APA). For this cross-sectional study, we studied seventy-five patients with chronic disease and no beta-blocker treatment. They systematically performed a cardiopulmonary exercise test before participating in a supervised APA practice using a telemetry wireless system to monitor heart rate (HR) during the first session. Based upon the results of the functional evaluation of exercise performance, we studied two groups of patients: (1) No limitation in exercise performance (maximal oxygen uptake greater than or equal to 80% of the theoretical reference) and (2) limited exercise performance (maximal oxygen uptake less than 80% of the theoretical value). Fifty-two patients (69.3%) were women, mean age was 42.6 (± 13.8), and mean BMI was 36.7 (± 10.6). Most patients had been referred for obesity (57.3%). We found 39 patients with normal exercise capacities and 36 patients with limited exercise performance. There were no significant differences in demographic and clinical characteristics between the two groups. For all populations, the mean and median real intensity levels of exercise in a sample of patients were moderate (55–70% HR max) and were the same for both groups. During the most intensive 15-min bout of the APA session, the HR for patients in both groups was greater than 70% of the actual maximum HR. This study observed a moderate level of APA exercise intensity in patients suffering from various chronic diseases. We found no significant difference in intensity level of exercise between patients' capacities, i.e., with and without limitation of their maximal performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]