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LITTLE FALLS, N.J., May 13 -- Exercise regimens that burn more calories over less-intense periods of exercise can increase weight loss and reduce cardiovascular risk factors better than standard cardiac rehabilitation programs, researchers have found. Action Points  Explain that walking more at a slower pace improved weight loss and cardiac risk factors better than standard cardiac rehabilitation programs.Note that current cardiac rehabilitation guidelines were written when deconditioning after lengthy hospital stays was common, which is no longer the case. In a randomized trial, overweight patients who exercised more but with less intensity lost twice as much weight as those on typical cardiac rehab regimens and had greater reductions in markers of metabolic syndrome, according to Philip A. Ades, M.D., of the University of Vermont, and colleagues. "High-calorie-expenditure exercise is superior to standard cardiac rehabilitation exercise in accomplishing weight loss and favorably altering cardiometabolic risk factors, particularly insulin resistance, in overweight patients with coronary heart disease," the researchers reported online in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.