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Most individual associate exercise with weight loss. However, there are some studies which found exercise has a poor influence in the fat loss rate which consequently cause negligible weight loss associated with decrease in motivation. However, the exercise program designed for most of the people who planned for weight loss was a moderate intensity exercises such as walking and jogging. In order to combat obesity epidemics, exercise is still an important tool beside diet. There are several studies which proved a high intensity intermittent exercises (HIIE) has a greater control over proportion of fat loss of an overweight person.

HIIE is an exercise protocol which involved repeated brief sprinting or an all-out intensity exercises followed by low intensity exercises or a rest period. Most of the subjects involved in studies related with HIIE were adolescent and young adults. They utilized a protocol called Wingate test which consists of 30s of all-out sprint with resistance followed by 4 minutes of recovery for 4 - 6 cycles. This session were repeated 3 times a week for 6 weeks. Even with lots of evidence showing that this kind of protocol yield a good result, it was unsuitable for overweight and sedentary individual because of the discomfort resulted from poor skeletal muscle adaptation to this vigorous routine. So for this targeted population, a modified form of exercise was designed. For example, they are asked the subject for a 8 seconds cycle sprint followed by 12 seconds of low intensity cycling for 20 minutes.

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In 1994, Tremblay et al conducted a study which measures fat loss for subjects involves in HIIE for 24 weeks. It was concluded that the subject involves in HIIE protocol lose more fat based on the skin folds measurement compared to the steady state exercise subject. In 2008, Trapp et al conducted a quite similar study with different protocol for 15 weeks which concluded subject which involves in HIIE protocol lost 2.5 kg more subcutaneous fat than the steady state aerobic exercises. In 2009, Dunn conducted similar protocol which is conducted for 15 week combined with fish supplementation and Mediterranean diet for 12 weeks. The subjects loss 2.6 kg of subcutaneous fat and improved their insulin resistance by 36% more than the control group.

All of the studies mentioned above has suggested that HIIE can result in moderate reductions of abdominal and subcutaneous body fat in normal and overweight subjects. The mechanism was still unknown but was thought to be as a result of HIIE-induced fat oxidation during exercised which cause appetite suppression afterwards. HIIE also has been shown to improves insulin sensitivity which cause increase capability for skeletal muscle to utilize fatty acid for energy.

References

• Shaw K, Gennet H, O’Rourke P, Del Mar C. Exercise for Overweight or Obesity. John Wiley & Sons; 2006. The Cochrane Collaboration.
• Wu T, Gao X, Chen M, Van Dam RM. Long-term effectiveness of diet-plus-exercise interventions vs. diet-only interventions for weight loss: a meta-analysis: obesity Management. Obesity Reviews. 2009;10(3):313–323.
• Trapp EG, Chisholm DJ, Freund J, Boutcher SH. The effects of high-intensity intermittent exercise training on fat loss and fasting insulin levels of young women. International Journal of Obesity. 2008;32(4):684–691.
• Tremblay A, Simoneau J-A, Bouchard C. Impact of exercise intensity on body fatness and skeletal muscle metabolism. Metabolism. 1994;43(7):814–818.
• Dunn SL. Effects of exercise and dietary intervention on metabolic syndrome markers of inactive premenopausal women. University of New South Wales; 2009. http://unsworks.unsw.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/unsworks:7345, Doctoral dissertation.
• Boutcher SH. High-intensity intermittent exercise and fat loss. J Obes. 2011;2011:868305. doi: 10.1155/2011/868305.