What do you think burns more body fat?

I'm not overweight but I was wondering what would burn more body fat: long distance type of workouts with a lot of even-paced long swim sessions or sprint workouts with mainly sprint intervals. Well, a lot will depend on the specifics of the workouts. I think what you are getting at is a comparison of lower-intensity work with little (or no) rest, compared to higher-intensity work with significant rest, where the overall workout time is comparable. What I've heard is that -- regardless of whether you are talking about running, swimming, cycling or whatever -- the low-intensity workout might use more calories during the actual exercise (because you run/cycle/swim farther) but the high-intensity workout might use as many or more in the long-run. The reasoning is that your metabolism remains higher for a longer period of time, and muscle repair uses up still more calories. But I would imagine the actual trade-off depends on the specifics: how high is the intensity in the interval workout? How much rest? How close to you to your lactate threshold on the aerobic workout? That sort of thing.

I'm not overweight but I was wondering what would burn more body fat: long distance type of workouts with a lot of even-paced long swim sessions or sprint workouts with mainly sprint intervals. Well, a lot will depend on the specifics of the workouts. I think what you are getting at is a comparison of lower-intensity work with little (or no) rest, compared to higher-intensity work with significant rest, where the overall workout time is comparable. What I've heard is that -- regardless of whether you are talking about running, swimming, cycling or whatever -- the low-intensity workout might use more calories during the actual exercise (because you run/cycle/swim farther) but the high-intensity workout might use as many or more in the long-run. The reasoning is that your metabolism remains higher for a longer period of time, and muscle repair uses up still more calories. But I would imagine the actual trade-off depends on the specifics: how high is the intensity in the interval workout? How much rest? How close to you to your lactate threshold on the aerobic workout? That sort of thing.