How Many Workouts Should You Do A Week To Lose Fat?

Does it really matter?

Pictured: Time consuming. Photo by Danielle Cerullo on Unsplash

Fitness hacks are one of the most popular things around. We all want to be fit, but getting fit is such a chore. It would be lovely if there was some way to avoid spending hours every week slowly building muscle and doing cardio at the gym.

And according to recent news, there’s a really simple way to cut down on your time at the gym and still see those gains. A new study has shown that one workout a week can be as good for losing fat as three, which is great news for anyone who wants to get stronger but just doesn’t have the time.

Of course, the reality is nowhere near as simple as that. Working out is good for you, but if you really want to get buff you still need to spend a lot of time lifting weights.

Let’s look at the science.

Getting Fit Scientifically

The new study is a randomized controlled trial conducted in Hong Kong of overweight and obese adults. The participants were divided into three groups: High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) once weekly, HIIT three times weekly, or a control group who got no intervention. HIIT is a type of exercise program where you intersperse very high and low intensity exercise. It’s been previously shown to help people lose a little bit more weight than other forms of exercise, although it’s unclear how strong that effect is.

In this study, the HIIT was running on a treadmill. The intervention group participants were given a personal trainer who helped them get set up and run for their exercise periods over 32 weeks. At the end of the study, those who worked out once a week and thrice a week had lost similar amounts of weight as well as fat around their waist, while the control group stayed the same.

Pictured: Not as much fun as running outside. Photo by Intenza Fitness on Unsplash

This sounds amazing at first glance. You can cut your workouts by 2/3 and still see the same gains! Isn’t that fantastic?

Except, that’s not what the study showed at all. You see, the once-weekly HIIT sessions were three times as long. Both the once-weekly and thrice-weekly groups aimed to get 75 minutes of HIIT in, regardless of how many sessions it took. That makes the entire story sound a bit less impressive.

The benefits were also modest, as you would expect if you’ve been reading my articles for a while. On average, people in the HIIT groups lost 0.5kg (~1lb) over the 32 weeks of the study. They lost about 1.5cm in waist circumference, and got a little bit fitter as measured by their oxygen usage. They didn’t see any benefits to blood pressure, cholesterol, or blood sugar, although the participants were generally pretty good on these measures at the start anyway.

This is consistent with the literature on exercise for weight loss. You have to do a LOT of exercise to see real weight loss for a variety of reasons. Adding an extra hour and a quarter of HIIT to your week is great for your health, but it’s unlikely to translate into significant weight loss for most people.

I would never tell you not to exercise. Exercise is fantastic for your health, and it’s a very important thing to do if you want to live a long and happy life. But the evidence is very clear—taking up exercise is not a great way to lose weight. As someone who runs 30km a week, I can confirm this personally—it’s really difficult to shed kilos by exercising.

The key thing that matters about exercise for the average human is quantity. Unless you’re a professional athlete, slightly improving your workouts isn’t going to do much for your weight or overall fitness. What really matters is that you can consistently do the exercise, not that it’s 2-3% better than some other workout.

This study shows exactly that. Both groups got the same amount of additional exercise, and both groups lost almost exactly the same amount of weight. They saw the same general benefits. It doesn’t really matter what exercise you do: it matters that you can do it consistently long-term.