Science says you can lose all the weight in half the time you’re working out

March 22, 2017 Ashley 0 Comments

Some people might call my hour(s) long trail runs dedication.

“When will you stop? How many miles have you gone? Do you have bunions? Do your bunions have bunions?”

Me?

I call ‘em indulgent. Indulgent and a testament to my favorite addiction. Why? Because, love them though I do, I know that they alone aren’t the best tool for weight loss. And so do the experts. No, jogging for so long doesn’t necessarily correlate with losing more weight or having optimal health. And I might feel badly, if I didn’t mix up my long run days with MMA training (where they force you to do HIIT and strengthening – something I’ve gotta be talked into.) And, even though my MMA classes end up being just as long as my runs, I could be doing a quarter of what I do, and still keeping down those pounds. Because, when it comes to weight loss, it’s all about quality – not quantity.

In fact, research at the University of Copenhagen showed that working out for half an hour daily lost participants just as much as those going at it for a full sixty. How’s that possible? Especially when working out for longer burns more calories? The collective guess was that, when you’ve only done a half hour, you’ve got more energy to do all those workouts-that-aren’t-really-workouts throughout the day. Maybe you take the stairs instead’ve the elevator.

“Does it count as exercise if I take the stairs… down?”
.____.

Or maybe you spend your lunch hour walking the block.

Or maybe you go for a post supper stroll that evening.

All of which you’re less likely to do if you tap out after two hours on the trail like I did this morning.

Another theory? That you work harder when you know you’ve got a shorter time length ahead’ve you. If your goals a mere half hour off, you might be more likely to sprint for several intervals. You might use more muscles more efficiently. You might be willing to get in more reps and perform better overall. Knowing a full hour of the same monotony lies ahead, makes all’ve that a lot less likely to happen. And what, exactly, does that intensity injection do for you? Well, there’s this thing called excess post exercise oxygen consumption (abbreviated EPOC – even though an extra “E” totally belongs in there; so we’ll just call it “afterburn” like the rest of the non-nerds). And it’s the stuff that HIIT workouts’re made of. The idea’s that, by doing a short but hardcore stint in the gym (or on the trail… or even at home), you rev up your metabolic motor so your caloric furnace is still torching fat for the next 36 hours. (Something my indulgent neverending trail runs won’t provide, but my Muay Thai training totally does.)

In sum?

To get more bang for your body’s buck, keep it short but sweatier.