The ‘12-3-30’ Treadmill Routine Is Crazy-Popular on TikTok—But Is It Actually a Good Workout?

In Interviews
Published in Health.com | January 2021

Weight loss is a little bit more complicated than just a single workout. If your goal is to lose weight, you need to burn more calories than you consume, and a healthy weight loss program will ideally combine exercise with diet modification, Selina Shah, MD, board-certified sports medicine and internal medicine private practice physician with Bass Medical Group in Walnut Creek, California, tells Health.

In that case, the 12-3-30 workout could be part of a healthy weight loss program, but Shah points out that any type of exercise can fulfill that role. Also worth noting: Research reported by The New York Times suggests that if you want to lose weight with exercise, you should aim to work out for 300 minutes a week. The 12-3-30 workout, unfortunately, doesn’t quite meet that standard—even if you do it every day (which the experts don’t recommend; more on that in a minute).