How often do you need to exercise to lose weight?
Adults should engage in at least 150 minutes of moderate physical activity or 75 minutes of intense physical activity each week, according to the World Health Organization. Exercise is good for our hearts and minds in addition to helping us lose weight.
The issue is that it might be challenging to squeeze in a daily workout during the week due to job and family responsibilities. Rather, a lot of people decide to pack their weekly workouts into one or two extended weekends. However, is an exercise regimen like this any more beneficial to us than a daily workout?
Researchers from China analyzed data from over 9,600 participants in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey in a recent study that was published in the journal Obesity to see whether weekend warriors might lose weight just as successfully as those who engaged in more regular exercise. The sample was collected between 2011 and 2018 and included a spectrum of persons, ages 20 to 59.
Both weekend warriors and regular exercisers had lower BMIs, whole body fat mass, waist circumferences, and levels of abdominal fat than inactive participants.
“In order to counteract the risks associated with a sedentary lifestyle, people are finding it difficult to stick to their exercise regimen in daily life but lack the leisure time to visit the gym,” stated Lihua Zhang, a health care scientist at the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College in Beijing, China, in a statement. “Our study could offer them an alternative choice to keep fit.”
Zhang suggests climbing, hiking, cycling, and jogging as appropriate weekend activities in addition to extended sessions at the gym. “The weekend warrior pattern is worth promoting in individuals who cannot meet the recommended frequency in current guidelines,” Zhang stated.
Beverly Tchang, an assistant professor of clinical medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York, commented on the study and said that the findings support the idea that any activity is preferable to none at all. “Notably, the weekend warriors’ workout was of higher intensity and longer duration, and more intensity and longer duration correlated with even lower abdominal fat,” she stated in a press release. “The main takeaway, though, is that people should be active in any manner that suits their lifestyle.”
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