Intermittent fasting doesn’t work for everyone, but now scientists say they’ve found a way to boost its weight-loss effects with a simple strategy.
The strategy involves a specific type of exercise: the high-intensity resistance aerobics.
What is aerobic resistance exercise?
Aerobic resistance exercise, also known as cardiovascular training or aerobic training, is a type of physical activity that involves the continuous use of large muscle groups at a steady pace for an extended period of time.
This type of exercise is designed to increase the body’s cardiovascular and respiratory capacity, improve endurance, and burn calories.
The combination that helps you lose more weight
According to researchers, this Combining exercise and intermittent fasting can help people lose almost 30% more weight.
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The combination of intermittent fasting and high-intensity aerobic exercise boosted weight loss
Obese women who followed the strict strategy for 12 weeks lost 25 pounds on average.
For comparison, volunteers who only followed a time-restricted diet, where all daily meals could only be consumed within an 8-hour window, lost 9 kg.
Participants who only did the exercises, which may involve push-ups, burpees and squatslost 5.4kg.
According to the researchers, the results show that combining exercise with diet brings “the greatest benefits” for both weight loss and heart health.
According to them, time-restricted eating is a good solution to combat obesity. It is easy to implement as it does not require people to limit their overall diet or count their total number of calories per day.
Search details
The researchers analyzed data from 64 women, aged 32 and with a BMI of 35, on average.
Twenty-four people were in the high-intensity functional training and time-restricted eating group.
The other two groups had 20 participants.
The instructor-led training sessions involved eight sets of eight exercises. Each lasted 45 to 55 minutes and volunteers participated three times a week.
Those who ate within an 8-hour window only ate between 8am and 4pm and did not need to reduce what they consumed.
The team then compared health markers among participants, including waist circumference, blood pressure and glucose, cholesterol and lipid levels.
In addition to losing more weight, the combined group also saw the biggest drop in waist circumference, at 10.5cm.
In comparison, intermittent fasting alone saw a decrease of 6.7 cm and the exercise group 7.6 cm.
The reduction in total cholesterol and glucose levels was also greater among the group that combined fasting and exercise.
Study limitations
However, the researchers acknowledged that the study did not take into account variations in the menstrual cycle and the small sample size.
Furthermore, they also admitted that food intake records submitted by volunteers “may lead to inaccurate estimates of nutrient intake.”
