Weighted vests can be useful, but let’s be honest about the benefits.

Topics discussed:

• (00:06) - Who's excited about a weighted vest?

Walking alone is not a strong enough stimulus for muscle or bone.

• Inactive postmenopausal women who walked with or without a vest for 18 months had no significant bone density changes (PMID: 22338922). Full breakdown below
• Even wearing a vest for 8 hours/day (PMID: 40540267) or 10 hours/day (PMID: 30095153) showed minimal skeletal benefit.

The muscle and bone gains you see in the research?

• They’re mostly in untrained individuals doing loaded exercises like squats, lunges, and jumps with the vest (PMID: 10995045, 9467434, 17724395).
• In these cases, the vest is just a hands-free way to add weight — not magic. As people progress, they’ll need more load than a vest alone can provide.

And for fat loss?

• Calorie burn from vest-walking is only ~10–15% higher than without it. That’s 30–50 kcal for an hour walk — about a single untracked bite of food.
• Long-term fat loss comes from managing intake, not chasing small increases in burn. Your diet is the real game changer.

If you lift weights regularly, walk, and are mindful about food, a weighted vest probably isn’t a “must-have” for you. it’s most effective in the right context.

Study Overview: Walking With vs. Without a Weighted Vest  PMID: 22338922

• Authors & Journal: Tantiwiboonchai N., Kritpet T., Yuktanandana P. in Journal of the Medical Association of Thailand, 2011 (EurekaMag).
• Participants: 48 working women aged 30–60, randomly split into two groups: one walking with a weighted vest, the other walking without, on a treadmill 3×/week for 12 weeks (EurekaMag).
• Protocol: Vest group started walking without it for the first 2 weeks, then began adding 2% of body weight weekly until reaching 8% by week 6 (EurekaMag).

Findings

• Bone Markers: Both groups showed large decreases in bone resorption (β-CrossLaps)—~19.1% for the vest group vs. ~21.8% for the non-vest group—no significant difference between them (EurekaMag).
• Physical Fitness: Improvements in leg and arm strength, endurance, and VO₂ max were seen in both groups—again, no significant differences between vest vs. non-vest walkers (EurekaMag).

Bottom Line—What This Means

Walking, with or without a weighted vest, helped with fitness and reduced bone resorption—but wearing the vest didn’t offer any extra benefit. So if you’re thinking the vest is a cheat code for stronger bones or muscles… this study says otherwise.