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A research report suggests that workouts that combine a variety of intense exercises with short recovery periods can help people lose more weight than walking at a steady pace on a treadmill or exercise bike.
Doctors often advise people trying to lose weight to focus on reducing calories and physical activity. But the type and amount of ideal exercise to lose weight optimally is unclear, say the researchers in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
For the current badysis, researchers looked at data from 41 small studies comparing weight loss results after at least four weeks of interval training or moderate intensity workout programs, such as jogging, cycling or walking at a steady pace.
Men and women lost weight and body fat with both types of workouts, regardless of their initial weight.
However, interval training resulted in a greater total weight loss: an average of 1.58 kg (3.5 pounds) versus 1.13 kg (2.5 pounds) with an activity of. moderate intensity continues.
"Losing weight does not just affect the number of calories you burn during exercise, but also the way your body reacts during the hours and days following exercise," Paulo Gentil said. principal author of the study, from the Federal University of Goias in Brazil.
"We found that interval training promotes higher fat loss and that interval training with sprints could be particularly effective," Gentil said via e-mail.
The interval training sessions lasted on average 28 minutes, compared with only 18 minutes for interval sprint sessions and 38 minutes for continuous workouts of moderate intensity.
While the exercise protocols varied, the most common high-intensity interval training alternated four minutes of full exercise with three minutes of recovery.
The exercise experiences of the study included a total of 1,115 participants and lasted from four to 16 weeks.
One of the limitations of the study lies in the fact that the wide variety of interval training programs tested has made it difficult to determine a particular approach that might be ideal for reducing the body fat or lose weight, noted the authors of the study.
Most exercise recommendations recommend 150 to 250 minutes per week – and up to an hour a day – of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise to prevent weight gain or modest weight loss. . Obese people with a lot of weight to lose are advised to exercise more than one hour a day, a target that few people reach, the researchers note in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
Exercise has many health benefits, but is not necessarily safe, especially for the elderly or those with chronic health conditions, said Dr. Peter Kokkinos of Georgetown University and Veterans Affairs. Medical Center in Washington, DC.
"Too much exercise can lead to serious musculoskeletal injuries, heart events, heart attacks and even death," said Kokkinos, not involved in the study, by email. "The risk of such injuries is extremely low with low to moderate intensity exercise, but may increase slightly with increasing intensity and duration of exercise."
Even the higher risk of interval training can still bring a bigger gain, said Keith Diaz, a researcher at Columbia University Medical Center in New York, who was not involved in the study. People who can not manage interval training all the time can still benefit once a week.
"It's thought that interval training can lead to greater weight loss because it encourages your body to burn more fat within 24 hours of your workout," Diaz said by e-mail. "Indeed, when you do intense exercise, your muscles use all of its energy reserves from carbohydrates."
But because interval training does not burn a lot of fat during short periods of exercise, other longer workouts can give similar results for fat loss, Diaz added.
"Interval training and continuous exercise have generally shown similar benefits for weight loss, so if you prefer the total nature of interval training or slow continuous exercise and regular, do what you like, "advised Diaz. "Chances are you'll keep this habit longer if you do it."
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