Exercise: Just A Few Minutes

Participants who peddled a stationary bike as hard as possible at the highest resistance for 30 seconds, followed by 4 minutes of peddling at slow speeds with little resistance (5 rounds), burned as many as 200 calories despite only vigorously exercising for 2.5 minutes. For many people who want to be in better shape, a large chunk of time spent in an effort to work out is an annoying turn-off. This new finding could make exercise reasonable for potential fitness buffs by squeezing intense efforts into a smaller time slot.
Integrative Biology of Exercise VI meeting, October 10-13, 2012