Just like US Rangers train extensively in full gear and extreme weather to prepare for battle, medieval knights trained from the age of 12 on in the art of warfare, including repeated drills and contests in full armor.
Putting randomly selected people from the street, putting them in armor for the first time in their lives and then putting them on a treadmill isn't very meaningful.
It’s meaningful since they are looking at the CHANGE in energy consumption going from unarmored to armored, not the absolute value.
If you double the energy consumption walking you can make valid inferences about what additional energy was consumed by putting armor on a man on horseback.
Question for historians: What fraction of actual battle time did knights spend on their horse and how much knocked off and fighting on the ground?
I see shows about military training and the soliders are loaded like pack mules. I always wondered why they carry so much stuff.
In combat, lighter is better. German troops in WW2 carried very little. Also US troops in the same war carried the bare minium.
Dry socks, rations, grenades, watter and ammo.Ponchos for shelters and there you go.