High-intensity interval training can burn body fat better, study finds

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Struggling with stubborn body fat?

Professor Zeljko Pedisic from Victoria University, Melbourne, suggests considering High-Intensity-Interval-Training (HIIT) as a part of your fitness regime.

The study, recently published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, derived its conclusions by pooling results from 18 controlled intervention trials.

The study included 511 adults who engaged in supervised HIIT, moderate-intensity aerobic exercises, or belonged to a non-exercising control group over 2 to 14 weeks.

Most of these studies had participants involved in three HIIT sessions every week.

The team found within just four weeks of HIIT, your body’s fat metabolism sees significant improvement. This not only persists but also improves further over time.

By the end of 12 weeks of regular HIIT, each minute of physical activity could burn an added 0.13 grams of fat. For someone active for 150 minutes weekly, this means a potential additional burn of roughly 10 kg of fat over ten years.

Those with a higher body weight might experience even more significant fat-burning effects compared to individuals with a “normal” weight.

While aerobic exercises like jogging can also boost fat metabolism, HIIT provides more substantial improvements in a shorter timeframe.

Given that over two billion people globally grapple with overweight issues, this research sheds light on an effective way to enhance fat metabolism and potentially lose weight.

It also acts as a preventive measure against unwanted weight gain for many others.

Given its rising popularity in the fitness world, as reflected in the Worldwide Survey of Fitness Trends, it’s high time to explore HIIT if you haven’t already.

As Professor Pedisic aptly concludes, “If you are not already doing it, maybe you should give it a go.”

If you care about weight management, please read studies about diets that could boost your gut health and weight loss, and 10 small changes you can make today to prevent weight gain.

For more information about obesity, please see recent studies about low-carb keto diet could manage obesity effectively and results showing popular weight loss diet linked to heart disease and cancer.

The study was published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

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