One the most common questions I hear, as do fitness trainers across the fruited plain, is this:
What exercise will make me lose weight fastest?
First Caveat: That’s Sorta’ve a Trick Question
Before looking at some interesting data recently published in the British Medical Journal, it’s worth stating one more time that in my opinion, for most of us, our body composition is by far and away largely a result of what we eat, not how much we exercise.
You can split hairs as to how much diet and exercise each play a role in determining your body composition, and as always, your specifics depend on a host of factors unique to you and you only. From where I sit these days, it’s reasonable to argue (again for most of us) as does Sisson that roughly 80% of your body composition is related to what you eat, roughly 10% to exercise, and 10% to managing stress and sleeping well. Do those exact numbers apply to everyone? Of course not, but it’s a decent conceptual starting point to launch from…
The trick question issue has to do with the fact that exercise is in no way the biggest determinant in “losing weight”; no matter how hard you try to burn calories, you still can’t outrun your fork, particularly if you’re eating along the lines of a standard American diet. Another way to look at it, and one that’s particularly damning to the traditional medicine and nutrition way of thinking, is that in no way does the simple adage of calories in, calories out ring true.
That said, here’s an interesting spin on the issue from the BMJ, first published in Feb 19.
HIIT, Particularly SIT, Beat MOD for Absolute Fat Loss
From the abstract –
Objectives To compare the effects of interval training and moderate-intensity continuous training (MOD) on body adiposity in humans, and to perform subgroup analyses that consider the type and duration of interval training in different groups.
Design Systematic review and meta-analysis.
Data sources English-language, Spanish-language and Portuguese-language searches of the electronic databases PubMed and Scopus were conducted from inception to 11 December 2017.
Eligibility criteria for selecting studies Studies that met the following criteria were included: (1) original articles, (2) human trials, (3) minimum exercise training duration of 4 weeks, and (4) directly or indirectly compared interval training with MOD as the primary or secondary aim.
The Summarized Results: Interestingly, they found that both MOD and HIIT reduced participants’ body fat percentage, with no statistically meaningful difference noted between the groups.
The kicker was this, when looking at loss of total absolute fat mass (the magical “weight loss”), HIIT groups, particularly those engaging in SIT (sprint interval training) dropped 28.5% more total fat mass than the MOD groups.
The Take Home: Adding sprinting to your routine offers a host of benefits regardless if weight loss is an objective or not, but it is particularly beneficial if you have pounds to drop.
Granted, for some of us, adding HIIT and in particular SIT (Sprint Interval Training) might see like a long shot given current physical condition, joint or other orthopedic issues, or any number of other things. I get that, and it can be a real challenge to incorporate, but it’s doable with imagination, willingness to experiment a little, and some trial and error.
We’ll revisit the sprinting for the non-sprinter, older wannabe fitness jockey, and the rest of us in the next week or so.
