Do short bursts of exercise do anything?

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anuxman

0
Hi.

I'm 180cm, 88 kilos, looking to lose weight. The central point of my plan is cycling every day for at least an hour. Three or four times a day I also like to randomly do crunches for 2-5 minutes (until it takes noticeable effort, then some more), only because it makes me feel better that I'm not sitting all the time (I have sedentary job). My question is, do these short exercise sessions actually do anything?
 
The more often you get up and move around throughout the day, the better. Crunches probably wouldn't be my top choice of exercise, though. I would aim to do activities that use larger muscle groups. Find a set of stairs and go up and down for 5 mins; do some inclined pushups on something STURDY, do some stationary lunges, etc. Try to find things that don't require maximal effort, but that get your whole body moving and warm.
 
But does a five minute exercise even do anything? Fat is the reserve energy source -- does such a short exercise even get to that?
 
I'm of the opinion that a 5 min exercise is better than a 5 min 'cheeky' snack. It at least is heading in the right direction
 
anuxman said:
But does a five minute exercise even do anything? Fat is the reserve energy source -- does such a short exercise even get to that?
Click to expand...

Like I said before, it's basically a ratio of carbs and fat that are being burned when your body moves. You're almost never just burning one fuel over the other, except in the first moments of exercise, or if you are doing extremely intense bursts of exercise. The ratio depends on the intensity. At the start of an activity, especially up to the first 90 sec or so, your body mostly burns carbs as fuel as these can be used faster. Once the 'fat-burning' system has had time to kick in, then you start to burn more fats than at the start of your activity..... this topic can go on and on, but the important thing is to GET MOVING. To lose weight, you want to burn calories - from carbs or fats. So even if you only get moving for 5 mins at a time, you ARE burning calories, which is what you want. Don't get too hung up on the technical side of things, especially at the beginning of your weight loss efforts. Just get movin'!
 
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