Is it more effective to work out longer and less strenuously OR shorter time and more strenuously??

Question

I am looking to lose weight more so than to get built

Answer 1

This is a huge misconception in the fitness industry. Every kind of training, whether it's interval or otherwise has the potential to burn fat, it's how much fat is burned that makes the difference between one activity and the next. At the end of the day "any increase in physical activity will mean more calories used = potentially more weight loss"

Low-intensity exercise is not as effective as high-intesity exercise at burning calories. High-intensity exercise is not as effective (percentage wise) as low-intensity exercise at burning fat calories. Regardless, high-intesity exercise always wins the race at burning more total fat calories in the end.

Calories are an important consideration since you need to be in a daily calorie deficit to lose weight. Low-intesity walking typically burns a greater percentage of fat calories than running. For example, say you walk for 60 minutes and burn 300 total calories. The percentage of fat burned for energy usually averages about 70%. When you take 70% of 300 this means you've burned 210 fat calories. BUT jogging burns average 40% of calories from fat, so if you jogged the same duration (60 min) then you'll have burned likely over 600 calories. If 40% of those come from fat, that's 240 calories. So even though you're burning a lower percentage of fat calories when you jog, it is still a greater amount of fat calories and total calories in the end which helps maintain a daily calorie deficit and accordingly a greater chance at weight loss.

The problem with high-intesity exercise is that it's typically harder mentally and physically so it's difficult to keep up with it unless you program yourself and commit to a tough workout every week. Age and health are also factors. My best advice is to alternate low-intesity and high-intensity to avoid burn out and make workouts more enjoyable and varied. I train this way as do all my clients with excellent results.

Hope that gives you a better overview on this subject.

In the meantime try these useful calculators to assess calorie consumption, and energy expenditure:

Daily Energy Requirement:
http://www.preventdisease.com/healthtools/articles/bmr.html

Calories burned through various activies:
http://www.preventdisease.com/healthtools/articles/various_activities.html
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Answer 2

Longer and less strenuously. While shorter work out times are tempting with our busy schedules, it's really not good to overexert yourself over a short period of time. It's best to take some time to warm up, work out at a moderate level, and then do some stretches afterwards. This will prevent possibilities of tearing muscles or making your system work too hard too abruptly.

Answer 3

working out longer builds endurance and tones the body, while giving a good cardio workout. working out briefly but very strenuously builds power. however, it should be noted that working out for too short of a time may not really work the cardio nor the muscles very much. an exception would be jumping rope because it is quite effective in working the heart and lungs, and almost 3X more so than running. because of rowing, we build endurance in the fall for long races, while concentrating on power on the spring for sprints

Answer 4

depends on your goals. long work out, les strenuous will get you toned, short workout, with more stress will bulk you up. depends on what you're trying to achieve physically. good idea is to first, workout longer but less strenuous alternating upper and lower body every other day. as you increase in stamina and strength, then swtich over to short, but harder workouts.

Answer 5

It depends on what outcome you're looking for. Some basic information in the sources below.