When it comes to achieving optimum weight loss results, lower-intensity exercise may be preferable over high-intensity training, a new study finds.

Published in the International Journal of Sports Medicine, the study compared women who followed a three-month regimen of moderate-intensity workouts, such as brisk walks, with those who engaged in more high-intensity exercise such as sprinting.

At the end of three months, the moderate-intensity exercise group was found to have shed significantly more weight than the high-intensity group, an average of seven pounds each compared with four pounds each.

Researchers suggested that women in the high-intensity exercise group may have engaged in post-exercise overeating as a result of fatigue.