Exercisers can burn as many as 200 extra calories in as little as 2.5
minutes of concentrated effort a day as long as they intersperse longer
periods of easy recovery in a practice known as sprint interval
training, researchers say. The finding could make exercise more manageable for would-be fitness
buffs by cramming truly intense efforts into as little as 25 minutes.
Kyle Sevits, Garrett Peltonen, Rebecca Scalzo, Scott Binns, Anna
Klochak, Christopher Melby, and Christopher Bell, all of Colorado State
University, and Edward Melanson and Tracy Swibas, both of University of
Colorado Anschultz Medical Campus, compared volunteers' energy
expenditures on two different days, one in which they performed a sprint
interval workout on a stationary bicycle. Their results showed a marked uptick in the amount of calories the
volunteers burned on the workout day, despite the short amount of time
spent in actual hard exercise. Study leader Sevits notes that despite exercise's numerous documented
benefits, few people hit the U.S. government's recommendations of 150
minutes of moderate exercise or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise per
week. "Research shows that many people start an exercise program but just can't keep it up," Sevits said. "The biggest factor people quote is that they don't have the time to fit
in exercise. We hope if exercise can be fit into a smaller period of
time, then they may give exercise a go and stick with it," Sevtis said. Though other studies have shown that sprint interval training can
markedly improve fitness and athletic performance, little was known
about how this type of exercise affects energy expenditure, a factor
that motivates many people to exercise. To determine how many calories a typical sprint interval training
workout might burn, Sevits and his colleagues recruited five healthy
male volunteers, all between the ages of 25 and 31 years old. These volunteers made an initial visit to Colorado State University in
Fort Collins in which they performed an exercise stress test to make
sure their hearts were healthy enough to participate. The researchers also analyzed the volunteers' body compositions and their resting metabolic rates. Over the next three days, the volunteers ate a diet precisely calibrated
to meet their metabolic needs so that they'd be in "energy balance",
Sevits explains, with just enough calories so they weren't over-or
under-eating. At the end of those three days, the men then checked in to a research
facility at the University of Colorado Anschultz Medical Campus that was
outfitted much like a typical hospital room. However, this room was completely enclosed, with air intake and exhaust
regulated and equipment installed to analyze oxygen, carbon dioxide, and
water content. Based on the results of this analysis, the researchers could determine
how many calories the volunteers burned while each stayed in the room. For two days, each volunteer lived in the room, continuing to eat the
prescribed diet and spending the majority of their time in sedentary
activities, such as watching movies or using a computer. However, on one of the days, they engaged in a sprint interval workout
that involved pedalling as fast as possible on a stationary bicycle in
the room that was set at a high resistance for five 30-second periods,
each separated by four-minute periods of recovery in which they pedalled
slowly with very little resistance. During the intense, 30-second bouts, the researchers coached the
volunteers over an intercom system, encouraging them to give 100 percent
effort. Analyzing results from the room calorimeter system showed that the
volunteers burned an average of an extra 200 calories on the sprint
interval workout day, despite spending just 2.5 minutes engaged in hard
exercise. Though the researchers can't yet speculate on whether such efforts could
translate into weight loss, Sevits and his colleagues suggest that
engaging in intense, but brief, bursts of exercise could aid in weight
maintenance. "Burning an extra 200 calories from these exercises a couple of times a
week can help keep away that pound or two that many Americans gain each
year," Sevits said. However, maintaining the maximum effort needed to exercise at peak
intensity over the 30-second sprints could prove tricky for many people
to maintain on their own without help, Sevits warns. "Motivating yourself can be very hard," he said. "The way this could work in the real world is with the guidance of a personal trainer," he added. The findings of the study will be discussed at The Integrative Biology
of Exercise VI meeting being held October 10-13 at the Westin
Westminster Hotel in Westminster, CO.
Source-ANI
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