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For all the fitness freaks out there, a study published in the American Journal of Physiology reveals that your 60 minutes-per day workouts are unnecessary. And for those of you who can't take the heat after feeling the burn, I have some good news.

Researchers at the University of Copenhagen show that 30 minutes of daily exercise provides an equally effective loss of weight and body mass as 60 minutes.

A research team at the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences followed 60 heavy - but healthy - Danish men in their efforts to get fit for three months. 

Half of the men were set to exercise for an hour a day, while the second group only had to sweat for 30 minutes.

Research results show that 30 minutes of intensive exercising is enough to turn the tide on an unhealthy body mass index:

Mads Rosenkilde, PhD student, Department of Biomedical Sciences. University reports,

"- On average, the men who exercised 30 minutes a day lost 3.6 kilo in three months, while those who exercised for a whole hour only lost 2.7 kg. The reduction in body mass was about 4 kg for both groups."

The findings suggest that not only did subjects who only exercised for a half hour lose more but they were more complacent and felt more energized than the second group.

The reason?

Mads Rosenkilde postulates that 30 minutes of exercise is so doable that participants in the study had the desire and energy for even more physical activity after their daily exercise session.

Combined with the fact that longer amounts of physical fitness burn energy that the body immediately needs to replenish, the second group was more likely to eat more after their workout than the 30 minute-men.

For a real life comparison we can compare the exercising phenomena P90X with Insanity. While the former is an intensive hour workout, the latter is an equally intensive 30-minute session of pure sweat and pain. Both yield identical results.