In your opinion, which would be better for weight loss?

Running for 2 miles straight at 5 mph (24 minutes) and then walking for 6 minutes on 4 mph to total 30 minutes......or.......Running for 4 minutes at 5mph, walking for 2 minutes at 4 mph and repeating that for 30 minutes.

Thanks for your input! 

I would imagine the intervuals would be better...but I am not an expert.

What is your goal?

My goal is to lose fat.  I am 5' 3" 1/2 and weigh 140.  I would like to lose 15 pounds.

Either would work, especially if you add in resistance (inclines) on the walking portions.  If you are interested in the HIIT routines, there are a lot of sites to help you maximize the burn.  Also, lifting weights really helps zap fat.  How long have you been running?  Do you change up your routine often?  For me personally, I love doing intervals.

if you can cut the walking intervals to 1 minute, it will help keep your heart rate up, and you'll probably find that it's plenty for a little recovery.  it might even help you stretch your workout to 40 or more minutes.

I have been running/walking intervals since April as well as lifting weights.  I have noticed my muscles getting bigger but still under a layer of fat and I have not lost much weight since I started exercising.  I recently started doing 2 miles straight on the treadmill.  I may not be ready for HIIT routines yet.  I have been trying to change my routine ever so often.  At this point I want to start dropping fat and not sure how to get it kick started. 

Before I advanced onto HIIT and was working on my getting my endurance up and toning I was doing this (I LOVE THIS WORKOUT):

Minutes    Speed   Incline

 0-1:00      3.8       

2:00-5:00  5.5      

5:00-7:00   5.5      1

7:00-9:00    5.5     2

9:00-11:00   5.5    3

11:00-13:00 5.5     4

13:00-15:00 5.5     3

15:00-17:00 5.5     2

17:00-19:00 5.5     1

19:00-21:00 5.7     0  

21:00-23:00   6     

23:00-25:00  6.5   

25:00-27:00   6     

27:00-28:00   5.7   3

29:00-30:00    5.7   4

30:00-31:00    5.7   5

31:00-33:00    5.7  

33:00-35:00    5.5   0 

35:00-37:00   3.8   

You can lower or higher the speeds and inclines as needed...but this really helped me to get a good start into the world of running and weight management.  *Not to mention, time flies when doing this!

That did not stay in format, sorry if it looks like a mess!  I will redo it.

Thanks k-loo

i am running 3 min. and walking 1. i do that for 45 min. everyday and keep my calorie intake at 1400. i m losing 2 pounds a week. this is the only thing that has worked for me. i cant believe the difference it is making, but everybody is different. And run outside. i didnt lose much when i was running on the treadmill.

I don't know who up there said this but the most important thing for losing FAT is to keep your heart rate up! Thats why HIIT is so effective= it keeps your heart rate up by keeping the walking intervals short. You should definitely try to keep walking to a minimum at a time, meaning walk shorter amounts at a certain time and spread them out. When I run I usually don't walk at all, and I've noticed that my body is starting to become accustomed to my routine, so make sure to keep switching things up. If your breathing hard, then your doing good!!!!!

Intervals are great, but they're more effective at a higher intensity.  The way you've described it, I think you'd probably burn more calories just running the two miles.  If you did the intervals a little bit faster (or with an incline, as somebody else pointed out), like 6-7 mph, then I think that would be better.  Ya gotta earn that recovery period!  ;-)

i talked to a trainer last week, who said that the most important thing when starting off, is to run for as long as you can, being somewhat out of breath (bring an mp3 player so that you can monitor how out of breath you are by trying to sing along once in a while...it shouldn't be too easy), once you get really tired, walk for about a minute and then run again for as long as you can - he said to keep doing this until you can't anymore, and then sign off with a sprint for the last of your energy - and then a five minute cool down walk - it's working for me, and I find my stamina getting better by the day!

Original Post by snehvide:

i talked to a trainer last week, who said that the most important thing when starting off, is to run for as long as you can, being somewhat out of breath (bring an mp3 player so that you can monitor how out of breath you are by trying to sing along once in a while...it shouldn't be too easy), once you get really tired, walk for about a minute and then run again for as long as you can - he said to keep doing this until you can't anymore, and then sign off with a sprint for the last of your energy - and then a five minute cool down walk - it's working for me, and I find my stamina getting better by the day!

 Thats exactly what I do when I run! Yay!

Thanks everybody.  Unfortunately it takes all that I have right now to run for 24 minutes straight at 5mph.  I am going to increase the time a little bit at a time until I can do 40 min. straight.  Then maybe I will increase the mph but running is very hard for me for some reason.  My face turns red as a tomato and I feel that my head is throbbing and I might pass out when I try to run at a higher mph.