Three Questions with Meghann Koppele Duffy

Episode 25 - Heavy Questions About Weighted Vests

• Meghann • Episode 25

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Is a weighted vest the the missing ingredient to your health and fitness journey? Or just more hype?

In this episode of Three Questions, I dive into the three questions I wish more people would ask before strapping on a weighted vest. Instead of rehashing the same old “good or bad” debate, we’ll explore how goals, sensory input, and our craving for shortcuts all shape whether a weighted vest actually helps or just makes things harder.

In the episode you’ll hear:
✅ Why weighted vests don’t live up to the hype for bone density and weight loss
✅ How clothes, pressure, and even your bra straps reveal your sensory preferences
✅ The real question to ask yourself: is a vest supporting your goals, or just distracting you from the work that matters?

Whether you’re a clinician, a movement teacher, or just someone wondering if a vest could be your missing piece, this episode will help you think differently about when and why it makes sense to add extra load.

Resources mentioned:
Episode 2: Sensory Preferences and How They Dictate Who We Are!
Find a Neuro Studio Teacher Near You
Connect with me on Instagram
Connect with me on Threads

Meghann Koppele Duffy: Welcome to Three Questions where critical thinking is king, and my opinions and research are only here to support your learning and deeper understanding. Hey, I'm your host Meghann, and I'm so honored you clicked on Three Questions today to talk about something I said I wasn't gonna talk about, but what do they always say?

Never say never. So today. Okay. Instead of having the same old, same old conversation about weighted vests, we are gonna get into it. I'm gonna ask you guys three questions to help you decide if weighted vests are the right decision for you. So let me preface this with a saying. I like to say a lot opinions are like buttholes.

We all have them. So I am going to do my best to not. Interject my butthole into all three of these questions, but I will offer my opinion in a way to explain the research and to have a nuanced conversation. If you have any questions after listening to this podcast or I say anything or bring research that might be contrary to what you heard someplace else, let me know.

Let's talk about it. Let's look at the research and see what it says. So question one, you're probably not gonna like it, but I've gotta ask you, what is your goal for wearing the weighted vest? Just think about it right now. Is it because of bone density? Do you have brittle bones? Are you at risk for osteoporosis?

Maybe that's a yes. Is it for weight loss? Are you not sure? No judgment in this answer at all. You might might think like, I don't know. I don't know why I'm wearing a weighted vest. I just walk around and I see everybody wearing a weighted vest. They're talking about it on social media. Or my good friend has been walking with a weighted vest and she looks great.

She feels great. Any of those above are fine answers, but what I wanna talk is let's talk about each goal. So bone density number one. The first thing I wanna point out is like, yo, are we all like brittle and falling apart? All of a sudden, all these younger women are concerned about bone density. Now, I'm not saying bone density isn't important, but like maybe we all need to chill a little bit.

And again, I don't wanna make this just a woman's problem or people who identify as women. I want to bring everybody in this conversation now, if bone density is an issue, great. But if bone density is a significant issue for you, whether you're a breast cancer survivor, maybe you are, I don't wanna say surviving, thriving, overcoming, maybe dealing with an eating disorder.

Maybe you're on medication that makes your bone density worse. This is critical. So you really need to stick to the research and the research does not support that weighted vest. Make a significant difference in bone density. Okay? The best way to increase your bone density is to lift weights, do resistance training.

Now, hear me out. What if you hate resistance training? Well, hold on. I don't want you to feel isolated, like you have to just do that. I'm gonna address that more in question three. Question one. I want you to identify your goal and to think about if it's really gonna reach that. So maybe you're thinking, get to the next goal Meghann. Bone density isn't actually my goal. I mean, I'm telling everybody it's my goal, but it's not. Maybe your goal is weight loss. Maybe you just had a baby. Maybe your partner just had a baby. Maybe you're going through menopause. Maybe your partner's going through menopause. Weight gain happens throughout a lifetime.

Okay. For some good reasons and for some not so good reasons. So if weight loss is your goal, let's talk about how that a weighted vest can affect that. So a lot of the research I looked at does not actually support weighted vests for improving weight loss. I did find one study that showed that maintaining the weight loss.

Using a weighted vest for like six months helped people not gain the weight back. But one of the studies I was really looking at, guys, hold your, hold your breath for a sec. It was wearing a weighted vest for eight hours a day. Okay. First of all, who wants to wear anything for eight hours a day? I mean, like, don't your shoes get annoying?

Doesn't your bra get annoying? Don't even get me started about underwear. So like, let's be honest, who was wearing a weighted vest for eight hours a day? Get out of here. I don't think that's happening now. I had this conversation with my sister. Shout out, Kim, you're not gonna like what I'm gonna say. She decided to go to the gym and she's like, I need to lose some weight.

And I'm like, great. And I'm like, well, you know, like, um, losing weight is about 90 to a hundred percent what we put in our mouth. And she's like, shut up. And I was like, okay. And she's like, I don't wanna change my diet. I told the guy at the gym, I'm not changing my diet and I'm not gonna cut out my glass of wine at night.

And I was like, well, good luck with that weight loss. And I was being snarky because I'm a her younger sister, but I've always admired my sister no matter her weight. She didn't let it define her. And she looks great, by the way. Um, but I'm like, do you really wanna lose weight? She's like, well, I know I wanna get healthier.

I'm like, okay, well that's different. So when we're looking at weight loss, I'm not trying to burst people's bubble, but like you could technically run an entire marathon and not burn a pound of fat. I mean, when I learned that, I was like, why are we running now? You might be thinking, well, Meghann, I run for my mental health and for blah, blah, blah.

I ran in my twenties because I did not want to gain weight. I wanted to eat bad. I wanted to drink more than I should have and not gain weight, which was not a great relationship with food or movement. I was not in a great head space in my twenties because that was, but that was my goal, all right? Not gonna judge myself.

So if you really wanna lose weight and you wanna wear a weighted vest, awesome. But it is a lot easier to not eat 500 calories than it is to burn it. So go back to the marathon. Someone who runs pretty efficiently, it takes 3,500 calories to burn a pound of fat, a caloric deficit, 3,500 calories. To burn a pound of fat, we burn about 100 calories per mile.

So you can run 26.2 miles and not burn a pound of fat. Okay, so we shouldn't use exercise as a weight loss guide. And if you don't believe me, go watch The Biggest Loser special. You can work out like a crazy person and eat a hundred calories a day and exercise and burn 6,000 calories. You will lose weight, but, but this is opinion, but it is supported with research.

You are kind of destroying your body. Your metabolism, our body's only job is to stay alive. And when you're working out that much, your brain doesn't know that we have all this stuff available to us. Okay? Food is fuel. So by limiting your fuel and driving that car into a brick wall, you know what's gonna happen.

But I get it, guys. I mean, who doesn't? I want all their problems to be solved yesterday. Okay? Sometimes it's like, Ugh, I just wanna lose five pounds like that. You know, like a snap of a finger. Alright? But are you willing to do the work it takes to lose that weight? And here is what is gonna really piss you off.

Whatever you do to lose the weight is what you need to do to maintain it. So if you wanna burn 6,000 calories a day. That's what you need to do to maintain that weight. And frankly, I would rather do anything else but work out to burn 6,000 calories a day. I now only run when I'm being chased, and, um, last time I checked, nobody is chasing me.

Okay. That's my opinion on running. I do go, um, shout out to McNulty, one of my friends. Um, every like two or three years, I'm like, let's go for a run. She runs a lot. And I just will like run like two or three miles just to prove I can do it. And then I'm like, I'll see you in like five years. Um, which is not healthy.

But this is not about me, it's about you. So weight loss, how is the weighted vest going to help you with your weight loss? Well, maybe that increased load might help you burn a little extra calories. But the people who are telling you to use a weighted vest for bone density and weight loss are also the same doctors and professionals who are telling you your knee pain is because you've gained weight.

Okay? So I always say more than one thing can be true, but this is bullshit. Okay, so hold on. If I gain 10 pounds, that's what's contributing to my joint pain. But you're telling me if I put a 10 pound weighted vest on, that's not gonna contribute to my joint pain, that's gonna help me reach all my goals.

Guys, think about it Logically, those two things can't be true. So if adding extra weight to your body does damage to your joints, and is the reason you have knee pain, foot pain, and back pain. That added weight is not going to improve your bone density and help with weight loss. Make a sense. Now, there's a lot of doctors who are smart who don't think extra weight is contributing to your joints.

When your joints hurts, it sometimes has nothing to do with your weight. Instead, it has a lot to do with your proprioception. So defining your goals is critical with the weighted vest. And if you are like, Meg, I don't know what my goal is, but I really feel good when I wear it, well then wear that shit. If it makes you feel good, keep doing it.

And after you answer question two, I think you'll know why. Question two, how does your body respond to sensory input? What the hell do I mean? Well go back to episode two. I feel like it's my favorite episode and surprisingly not the most listened to episode. I talk a lot about underwear in that episode, but what's sensory input?

Okay. It's how your clothes feel against your body, your skin from a rubbing perspective, a, um, pressure perspective. All the above. How do you feel when you gain weight? How do you feel when you lose weight? Anybody lose weight and then they always gain it right back. But they're trying to do everything right and someone's like, oh, your body has a set point.

Which is kind of true, but kind of not. Here's the thing nobody likes to talk about. When we gain weight, we are going to feel a different amount of pressure and sensation against our skin, which I call our meat suit. Our skin is what's holding this deck of cards together. So when I'm bloated, when I'm heavier, I feel more pressure against my skin.

When I eat too much, I feel too much pressure of my organs against my skin or my introception changes. That's kind of like the sensation within our organs, which a lot of people kind of rely on, which is not always a reliable, um, uh, sensory input. So. Answering that que answering, answering that question is critical.

So if the first thing you do when you get home is take off your bra, maybe a weighted vest isn't for you. Let's talk. So a bra, there's a lot of increased sensation, kind of right under the breast, along that band line. You also have sensations around the arm. Okay. Now what most people, or what I hate about bras is where it's tight in certain spots and loose in others.

Okay? So it might be too tight around our, um, ribs, but loose in the actual boob region. Okay? So sometimes to get brass that hold up your chest, they have to be tighter around the rib. Okay, that's not that necessarily comfortable. Now talk about the straps on the arms. Ugh. Does anybody have like a shirt or a bra that it like, feels like it's pulling you down?

So if you see me on YouTube, I'm like slouched, right? It's like the weight of the world is on your shoulders where other tops, no problem. Now our bras and our shirts are going to affect the motor output of our body. So sometimes what actually happens is like. Think of all our joints as opportunities for movement.

So our shoulder, our neck, you know, our clavicle, our, uh, our ribs move our lower back, our hips, our wrist, our fingers. These are all opportunities to move, but when close, touch and cross over a joint in a sensory input, that is too tight, too loose. Too scratchy, not scratchy enough, can create a sensory environment that blurs the brain map.

So the brain might think that we shouldn't move at that area. So sometimes when I'm wearing too tight of yoga pants, my hip range of motion is actually restricted. I move more from my lumbar spine. Why is that? Because the, my big old booty, my pants are so tight around my hips and butt. It almost kind of stabilizes that joint.

And if it's stabilizing, it's not moving. Okay? So to simplify this even further, your clothes affect your movement. That's why you like certain things and don't like other things. And if you don't believe me, look at how dancers dress. Oh my God, how weird are they? I'm like whispering, like they won't hear me.

Sorry. Dancers, you, you know, you dress weird, right? Like you roll up your tights, you wear your tights outside the leotard, you wear these weird socks, and then you roll things up and tie things around you. You know why you do that. It's giving your brain good sensory information of where you wanna move and don't move.

All right. I always hated tights as a kid. Still do. 'cause they would be tight at the waistband and then looser throughout the rest of my body. My body likes everything to have the same amount of pressure. Which is a tough find. It's tough with jeans, but when you find them, you know when it's the right fit.

Okay, so going back to the weighted vest, do you like extra sensory information around your chest and back? Does it feel like it's pulling you down? Is your neck stiff after you go for a walk with a weighted vest? If it is, it is inhibiting your arm movement and rotation in your spine during your walk, which is why your neck is stiff.

You're over mobilizing there, or it's gotta do something weird. Okay? And if you still don't believe me, have someone scratch your back. I swear to God, my husband, if I asked him to scratch my back, he's either clawing my skin off or he's touching me like with the tips of his fingers. I'm like, can't we get a happy a she medium on that?

But think about it. I'm like, Brian scratching back. No, not there to the left. No. No to the right to the left. Nope. Up, up, down. It's like how many, I'm not that big. His hand is like the size of my back. How can you not find the spot? It's because it's not Brian. It's my sensory map. There's areas of our body where we're sensory dense.

Our cervical spine, our si joints, that's where our sacrum meets our pelvis. Around the back, the bottom of our feet, our hands, our tongue. And if you wanna see where we're really sensory dense, Google the picture of a sensory. The sensory occulous. Don't ask me to spell it. Ha Occulous.

Ous. There you go. Good, good. Try Google it. And you'll see it's like a picture of a person, but they've got giant lips, tongue, giant genitals, which is another reason why sometimes cues testicles, um, hands, feet. That's where we're really sensory dense. We are not sensory dense on our back, which means our brain can't really differentiate between two points.

There's spots on our body. I've got my fingers really close. You two people can see where we can differentiate two points, which would mean if I touched you with two fingers that close, you should be able to feel the two fingers. Then there's spots on our body, especially after an injury where I could put two fingers like a foot apart, and a client will still say it's one finger touching them.

That's what's called two point differentiation. So let's be honest, do we really think putting this little weighted vest over our chest and on our back is really changing our proprioception in a positive way?

I don't have an answer for you. You are the only one who has an answer because some of you, that weighted vest might help your brain map out your shoulder girdle in a way that movement feels easy. Or that weighted vest could make you go from a beautiful mover to be like, oh my God, I feel like a robot. I can't move.

And that is because you have changed the sensory environment. Total sidebar is we use weighted vests a lot, and we've used weighted vests for a long time for people with neurological conditions. Why? Because wearing a weighted vest and the best ones guys are not just along the chest and stop above your belly button.

They go all the way down to the hips and somebody, how we use weighted vest for neuro clients is there are these little slots where you put weights in, you have to test the person to see where the best place to put the weights are. I've worked with clients that have come in with a weighted vest and I'm like, yo, this ain't it.

You're literally leaning back and they're like, I know, but my PT gave it to me. And I'm like, okay. Yes, and let's test where your sense where you need more sensation. A lot of people think if they put the weight on their back, it's gonna fix their posture. God, I wish it was that easy. What I do with a lot of my clients, we put it on the front of their body, so it almost feeds the bleed.

So your body, think about it, if you have a large chest, everybody's slouch right now. Maybe you've got a belly, maybe you've got boobs, maybe you have, I don't know, put your hands on your chest. When I put my hands on my chest, I can feel my hands closer to my belly button. So if I put the weights on my chest, if those weights go forward, it's going to trigger a response in my brain to fix my posture.

If I have the weights lower on my belly, my body is gonna, it's almost like my boobs are gonna get stuck on the weights. It's not gonna feel good. That's gonna trigger a response in my brain to increase the postural tone in my lumbar spine. Okay. But what people tend to think is if they put the weights in their back, oh, that's just gonna keep me upright.

That's often gonna have your brain pull you forward more because your brain thinks you're falling backwards. It's feeling increased load in your back that's gonna trigger your brain to bring you more forward into air quotes, bad posture. So what I want you to take away from this. Sensory is individual.

We all have our own sensory things. As I get older, I feel like I understand my sensory preferences. I have come to realize I have a lot of sensory issues. Now, if I would've known that as a kid, maybe it would've helped me. But as one of my best friends said, Hey, if you didn't struggle, you would've been an a SS, which I love her, she's right.

So our sensory issues kind of determine how we move who we are. So we can't fight it. We can't hate them. Okay. We just have to figure out a way to help. I literally told a therapist once that like, I think my clothes affect my mood. Like literally when I wear yoga pants that are tight and that come above my belly button, I feel like I can't concentrate.

Okay. This was like 15 years ago before I understood my sensory preferences. You know what she told me. So stop wearing them. Get rid of them. So I gave them away to students and clients. 'cause some of them were brand new, but it was the best thing I did because, oh my God, I was not able to move and concentrate in a way.

I felt great. Because of that. And if you wanna think, learn more about, or think more about sensory stuff, go back to episode two where I talk about sensory input and I think I have found the gold star of underwear. My friends, if you're interested, send me a DM comment on Instagram. I will let you know the brand.

They're completely smooth, but they stay up. You do have to be, I don't put them in the dryer, so it is a bit annoying. So I have to like put all these underwear. In like one bin and wash them separately so they don't get in the dryer. But I think the juice is worth the squeeze. I'm not even gonna say the brand yet because I wanna give it a full three months before I share anything with you guys because what I don't wanna do is tell you guys to get something and it's utter shit.

That's kind of why I don't promote products. Alright. Soda review. What's your goal about a weighted vest? Is it bone density? And if you're having a bone density issue, I recommend that you do the things that have the most research to support them. If you hate those things, I'm giving you permission, but you don't need permission to do other things.

But recognize it will not have as big of effect on your bone density as the tradition as weight training. Okay? Number two, if weight loss is your goal, I want you to think about what are your eating habits. What are you doing to your body? Are you respecting what your body needs? Are you over exercising?

Is this weighted vest going to add to that or create more stress? And coupled with weight loss goes the sensory. Some people's brain and body feels more safer when they have extra weight on them. I see this with a lot of people with EDS and hypermobility. I often see two body types and I am totally generalizing, so just chill and let me finish my sentence before you yell at me.

I see people who are very significantly overweight, people who have actually had surgeries gastric bypass, gone on the medication and it didn't help. Why? Because it wasn't that they were weak. It wasn't that they were overeating, it had no self-control. It was, they don't respond to a stretch reflex in the stomach the way other people do.

Their brain might feel safer with extra weight because they can sense where they are in space. Then there's other people who have to be very light and gaining five pounds can have such a sensory effect on their body. So. If you feel, if your joints don't hurt when you gain weight, keep in mind you might not be happy with your weight gain, but if your joints don't hurt when you gain weight, if you find you always end at this certain weight, maybe a weighted vest, increasing the weight would help your proprioception and not create more problems.

But if you're someone who gains five pounds and. It does not feel great. Joints feel like shit. Brain feels like shit all the above. Adding a weighted vest is not going to help your issues. Remember if adding weight is what's causing joint problems and health problems, adding weight is not going to fix your joint problems and your weight problems.

Okay? Figure out which part of that spectrum you're on and then give it a try, and if it doesn't work, abort that shit quick. Cool. Okay. Last but not least, about sensory. Recognize that the area that we're wearing the weighted vest is not sensory dense. Again, somebody actually asked me if it's affecting the cranial nerves, but the cranial nerve, the accessory nerve that kind of works with posture and spine is a motor nerve, so a weighted vest.

It's not a sensory nerve, so changing the sensory environment. Is not going to change the motor output. If it's not a sensory nerve, it's a motor nerve, but the weighted vest might help your jaw stabilize more, your tongue move more, your eyes move better. So yes, it could affect your cranial nerves in a positive way if the weighted vest gives you good sensory input.

Okay, think about it. I'm not giving you answers, I'm asking you questions and question three. This one's kind of a short one because it's really gonna sum up the other two. I don't even like, I, I don't like this question because I feel like it's resonating with other things in my life, so I'm gonna ask it and then I'm gonna let it sit.

Are we chasing a shortcut because we don't like the alternatives or. Are we chasing something new because the shit that we were doing didn't work? I'm gonna say it again. Are we chasing a shortcut because we don't like the alternatives or we don't wanna do the alternatives? Let's break that question down first.

Do we think this weighted vest is gonna fix all our problems, increase our bone density, help us with weight loss, deal with the things going on with menopause. The bad news is, guys, step one is the hardest is making the lifestyle changes. I think that all boils down to be honest about your goal. Now, the weighted vest could help with menopause things.

Proprioception changes drastic drastically during menopause. The changes in estrogen and progesterone change how our skin feels, how our muscles feel, our joints feel. So the weighted vest could be a positive thing for your proprioception, but are you wearing it long enough for the day for it actually to integrate?

Dare I say, if? If, if that's the case, if it feels good for you, I would wear the weighted vest when you're doing your Pilates, when you're doing your weight training, not just when you're walking. Okay. But keep in mind, it's not the added weight, it's the sensory input. To help your brain know where your body is in space, and it might help you isolate your arms because you can move your arms without moving the the vest.

Okay, so some food for thought, but my real question is, are you not doing the small things that are actually gonna get you to the goal? The small things that we don't wanna do, like for me cooking, I have celiac. When I cook for myself, I feel, uh, like a thousand times better, but I hate to cook, so I can take all the supplements, I can look for a shortcut, but until I get to step one doing that small change, I'm never gonna reach the goal I want.

I'm using myself as an example. 'cause I can admit where I suck. And Kim, my sister once said, just go into the, just cook one thing, just go what's in your refrigerator and you know, cook that. And I was like, Kim, that's like me saying to you, go into my Pilates tea and just figure out a workout. And she actually was like, oh, touche.

When I'm in the kitchen, I, I don't see how everything fits together. It's not where I excel. It stresses me out. So think about if this weighted vest could enhance what you're already doing well, or are you using it to skip the steps of the actual change you need? And please know there's zero judgment there.

I am committing to once this, um, semester starts, because I'm really deep in getting really deeper into my dissertation. I have to be mentally my best. And in order to be mentally my best, I need to cook for myself. So you'll know if I'm cooking for myself, I'll sound a little more unhinged than I normally do and call me out.

Be like, um, you're not cooking for yourself. Right? And the second part of that question, are you chasing a shortcut or looking for something new because the shit that people are saying is not working for you? You might say to me, Meghann,, I've done everything you've said. Meghann,, I've changed my diet significantly.

I'm exercising, but not to excess. I'm doing all the things, but I'm not reaching my goals. This shit is not working Well. You know what? Maybe you need to change the game. Maybe you need to change your sensory environment. Maybe you need to do something drastic. I don't know. All I know is if what's not working for you, you need a change.

But ask yourself, did I actually do the things that I'm saying? Don't work. I see it all the time. Weight training people poo-pooing Pilates, yet they've never done Pilates. Pilates. People saying weight training and CrossFit creates injuries, and I'm like, yo, ladies and men, there's just as many injuries in Pilates as in CrossFit.

Okay. People like to put down what they don't know and understand or don't like. I like variety of movements, so I like everything and I don't like doing the same workout twice, literally. If you're like, do this workout three. Uh, three times a week. I already am like, Nope, not gonna do it. I don't like doing that.

I used to force myself and I don't anymore.

I'm just gonna leave that pause there. So I'm gonna ask you question three again. Are you chasing a shortcut because you don't wanna do the things it takes to get to the goals. I see you. I hear you. I feel you. So either change your goals or admit to it and just take the shortcut. Just be honest with yourself.

Cool. Or if you're like, Meg, this is not working for me. My bone density is going down. I've been weight training. Well mix that shit up. Maybe stop weight training, because just because it has peer reviewed research doesn't mean you have to do it. This is your life. And guys, we only get one round at this. I do believe in past lives, but I'd be a different person.

So I only get one round of this version of Meghan. I wanna enjoy it as much as I can. I don't wanna punish myself doing the things everybody tells me to do. I wanna do the things I wanna do and do my best to reach my goals. Cool. That's where I'm sitting right now. Talk to me in a year or so. Maybe I'll say something different.

So. Question two and question one. Question three and question one are basically the same. What are your goals? Are you chasing a shortcut? And remember, guys, in order to reach our goals, we need to understand question two more than anything else. Because once you understand your sensory needs or your sensory icks, everything becomes a lot easier.

I hope that resonated. I hope if you love your weighted vest, you rock that weighted vest around the block. And if people say it doesn't do anything, you tell them it does. And if you hate your weighted vest, get rid of that shit. Maybe lay it over you like a weighted blanket. Use it differently. Give it to someone who likes it.

You don't have to use it. It is not the secret to success that nobody, that's like the newest thing, something I've learned in my 43 years of life and 24 years of being a movement professional is there are no shortcuts. Trust me. If there were, I'd be talking about 'em. Thanks guys. 

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