According to Dr Eric Plaisance, a University of Alabama at Birmingham exercise scientist and co-author of the study, 80 percent of people who lose weight via dieting gain all of it back within five years — which is super demoralising.

That was best illustrated by a 2016 paper which found US Biggest Loser contestants had dramatically slower metabolisms years after competing on the show, which made it nearly impossible for them to stop gaining back the weight they had lost.

One of the big advantages HIIT has over moderate-intensity exercise is that it takes far less time to complete.

In a moderate-intensity workout, you might walk briskly for 60 minutes. But in a HIIT workout, you’d push yourself to your max for a short burst of time (by sprinting, for example), recover for a couple of minutes (by walking), then repeat that cycle for 20 minutes — and gain the same benefit as the hour-long walk.

“The number one reason that people tell us they do not exercise is due to a lack of time. High-intensity interval training takes about a third of the time as a continuous exercise training,” Plaisance said.

“If you are going to start a diet where you are restricting calories, these results could help prevent muscle mass and maintain energy expenditure.”