High vs Low Intensity Training for Fat Loss

Posted by: Curt | Under: General Fitness | (0) Comments

Alwyn Cosgrove has an interesting post on his blog about a new study that compares high and low intensity exercise for fat loss. As you ought to know by now, high intensity wins, but the exact reasons are unclear except for the fact that we know that higher intensity exercise changes your metabolism more dramatically that low intensity. While walking on a treadmill for 1/2 hour may help some people who are extremely out of shape (which actually is most people) it does not kick the body into fat burning mode like high intensity training does. Something is better than nothing, but if you are going to spend an hour at the gym, you might as well get all you can from it.

This is where the results are interesting. Despite burning the exact same amount of calories over the sixteen weeks – the low intensity group did not see any changes in abdominal fat. The exercise program did not do anything. However the high intensity group saw a significant reduction in abdominal fat.