Exercise: Is 30 Minutes of Daily Exercise Effective as One Hour of Exercise?
Can it be that 30 minutes is actually as good or better for weight loss than 60 minutes of daily exercise? Surprisingly, this may be the case according to a study published by the American Journal of Physiology in August of 2012. The 13 week study involved moderately overweight men, the men either worked out hard enough to produce a light sweat for either 30 minutes or one hour daily over the 3 month period. On average, the men who exercised 30 minutes a day lost close to 8 pounds during the three month study, while those who exercised for 60 minutes only lost about 6 pounds in the same time span.

Researcher Dr. Mads Rosenkilde explains, "Participants exercising 30 minutes per day burned more calories than they should relative to the training program we set for them. In fact we can see that exercising for a whole hour instead of a half does not provide any additional loss in either body weight or fat. The men who exercised the most lost too little relative to the energy they burned by running, biking, or rowing. 30 minutes of concentrated exercise give equally good results on the scale."
American Journal of Physiology, August 2012