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If you are sweating it out for hours together at the gym to burn fat, it is time to change your routine, as research says that short and intense bursts of exercise achieves the same objective. 

According to experts from British Science Festival, just 2 minutes and 30 seconds of high intensity exercising may protect the body against risk factors associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD) than longer sessions of less intense exercise.

The researchers say, that the faster the body burns fat following a high-fat meal, the lesser the chances, the person will develop a CVD - for example atherosclerosis, which is the buildup of fat within the blood vessels. 

For the study led by Dr Stuart Gray, from the University of Aberdeen's Musculoskeletal Research Program, the researchers asked participants to exercise for 2.5 minutes with high-intensity- 5 x 30 second sprints - to their maximum ability. 

The participants were given 4 minutes break between each sprint, before they consumed a high-fat meal. 

The findings of the study revealed that there was a 33 percent less fat content in the blood of these participants after the high fat meal compared to if they had not exercised.

If exercise with moderate intensity is undertaken before the meal, the fat content in the blood is only reduced by 11 percent. 

"Although moderate intensity, longer sessions of exercise can help protect the body against CVD, the findings of our study showed that high-intensity shorter intervals of exercise might be a more effective method to improve health and reduce the time commitment to exercise. This is highly important as time is often cited as the main barrier to taking part in exercise," said Gray.

"We are now investigating how long the benefits of a short high-intensity exercise session last on the body to analyze how frequently a person should exercise at this level to help protect the body against CVD. Our initial findings suggest that this type of exercise session would need to be undertaken on most days of the week to maintain the associated health benefits for the body," Gray added.

The study was published in the journal Clinical Science.