Vibration Therapy & Weight Loss

With whole body vibration therapy, you stand on a large platform and a machine vibrates your body. Because your feet are closest to the vibration base, your lower body receives more of the effect than your upper body. Flashback to the black and white films of the 1950s workout rooms and you will have an idea of what these machines used to resemble. Current models are modern versions of the same vibration principle.

Vibration Therapy Measured

Vibration machines deliver vibration levels through differences in frequency and amplitude. You will set the frequency in hertz. The number of hertz corresponds to the number of vibrations you will receive within one minute. The amplitude is measured in millimeters and sets the height of vibration displacement on the platform. To increase the intensity of your session, you increase the frequency and amplitude.

Fat Free Mass

Your body contains muscles, bone, organs and skin. The weight of these combined is known as your body's fat free mass. One of the goals in strength training is to increase that fat free mass of muscle tissue. Women were found to have this increase when using whole body vibration, according to a study by the Exercise Physiology and Biomechanics Laboratory in Leuven, Belgium. The women did not see weight loss or a reduction in total body fat, although a slight increase in fat free mass was measured.

Body Fat Accumulation

Four years after the Belgium study, the International Journal of Obesity reported on vibration training in female rats. The rats participated in 12 weeks of vibrational therapy and did show a reduction in body fat accumulation. Their overall weight ended up approximately 10 percent less than the control group.

Weight Loss

Whole body vibration is not a cardiovascular exercise. Typically, weight loss is associated with exercises such as walking, cycling, swimming or aerobic dancing. You can strengthen muscles during vibration therapy and the additional fat free mass has the potential for burning extra calories. According to the Annals of Nutrition and Metabolism, weight loss depends on creating a negative energy balance, or simply using more calories than you consume. If vibration exercises get you up and moving, you will burn calories. If you do not overeat, this calorie burning will lead to a loss in weight.

Expert Opinion

The American Council on Exercise recommends keeping a few precautions in mind when choosing vibration exercises. Not all machines are created equal so do not expect to consistently receive the same intensity levels. ACE suggests using vibration therapy in addition to your current exercise program and not using it as a replacement.