How Fast Will I Lose Weight With Hiit

Everyone has wondered at some point in time which form of exercise is better to burn fat; low intensity or high intensity? Steady State or HIIT? To put it in simple terms, both low and high intensity exercises will help you to burn off body fat. The question here should be… which is the most EFFECTIVE way to burn off MORE body fat?

You will hear all too often that if you are trying to lose body fat, you should walk rather than run because you burn more fat by walking. This is partly true but these people have just misunderstood the data.

When you walk at a low intensity, around 75% of the calories you use will come from body fat. During a HIIT session only 50% (or less) of the calories burned will come from body fat.

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This is where the ‘low intensity’ advocators have closed the book. What has been completely missed is that, while HIIT burns a lower PROPORTION of fat, it will burn a greater AMOUNT of fat (as demonstrated by the table).

To put the icing on the cake, when your glycogen (carbohydrate) stores get low (due to higher intensity exercise), the carbohydrates from the food you eat will later get converted into glycogen to top up the depleted stores, and therefore, will not be converted to body fat when they are left unused for energy.

As we mention all the time, HIIT will also boost your metabolism after you have completed your workout. What this means, is that your body will continue to burn calories hours after you have finished your workout. This is because during recovery from this type of exercise, energy (calories) is needed to return your body to a resting state and adapt it to the exercise just performed. This process is known as EPOC (excess post-exercise oxygen consumption). Once a state of EPOC is achieved, your body will continue to burn more calories after your session as it tries to recover from the activity just performed. This includes hormone balancing, removal of waste products, replenishment of fuel stores, cellular repair, fueling the body’s increase in metabolism due to the increase in body temperature and many more bodily processes. This means that you have the potential to keep burning calories for up to 36 hours after your workout! This effect is nearly non-existent in low intensity exercise.If you had to pick the better runner — a sprinter or a marathoner — the answer would depend on the type of race. In a 200-meter race, the sprinter will have an edge over the marathoner, but if it calls for, say, 18 miles, the marathoner will outrun the sprinter.

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That’s how you should think about high-intensity interval training and low-intensity steady state cardio. One type of workout isn’t necessarily better than the other, but one might be better suited for you, depending on your fitness goals.

What exactly is the difference between HIIT and LISS cardio? HIIT involves alternating between short bursts of intense effort with periods of rest or active recovery. There are many ways to do HIIT, but some of the most popular work-to-rest ratios are 30 seconds of work and 30 seconds of rest, 45 seconds of work and 15 seconds of rest, or four minutes of alternating between 20 seconds of work and 10 seconds of rest (also known as a Tabata).

“If you’re looking to do a marathon, mud run or endurance-based activity, put some energy into LISS. But if you’re looking to be more explosive, athletic or build muscle, HIIT workouts are best suited to help you do that, ” says personal trainer Rafique “Flex” Cabral.

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To help you decide which type of exercise is best for you, here are different scenarios where HIIT or LISS could be more beneficial.

Whether you’re a gym newbie or are getting back into working out after a hiatus, LISS is a good way to ease into exercise. Because you’re working at a low intensity, you may be able to work out for a longer period of time and exercise more consistently. HIIT workouts — although shorter — require more effort from your muscles and can be stressful on the joints.

“Older adults experience great results with LISS cardio as it improves their bone density and musculoskeletal health, in turn promoting healthier aging. These benefits also allow for a cost-effective means in promoting positive improvements in the ability to carry out activities of daily living, ” says Lisa Reed, a performance coach and owner of Lisa Reed Fitness, LLC.

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Doing any type of LISS cardio will burn calories, helping you achieve the calorie deficit you need to lose weight. But turning up the intensity of your workout is ultimately going to help you burn more calories, giving HIIT an edge.

“LISS is great for improving endurance activities and cardiovascular work capacity, and aids in recovery and weight loss. But if you’re trying to gain muscle, which helps burn fat, LISS may not be the best thing to add into your routine frequently, ” explains Cabral.

HIIT helps you build and maintain moderate amounts of lean muscle mass. It also produces an after-burn effect called excess post-exercise oxygen consumption, says Cabral. EPOC is the amount of calories you burn long after your workout is over, and HIIT is the most effective workout for stimulating EPOC, according to the American Council on Exercise.

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The after-burn effect of EPOC can last anywhere from 12 to 48 hours, according to the ACE. “(With HIIT) you will produce an after-burn effect with 25% more calories burned post-workout compared to going for a run or walk, ” says Reed, and your metabolism can be boosted by up to 10% for three days after a HIIT workout. “Maintaining a routine that involves HIIT training three to four times a week will help compound that post-workout effect on your metabolism, ” Cabral explains.

“Incorporating resistance training into your HIIT workouts can help build and maintain muscle, particularly your type two fast-twitch muscle fibers, which are necessary for athletic movement, ” Cabral says.

You have two different muscle fibers: type 1 (slow-twitch muscle fibers) and type 2 (fast-twitch muscle fibers). Your type 1 muscle fibers are built for endurance activities, such as running a marathon and biking long distances, while type 2 muscle fibers are made for quick, explosive movements. Think: sprints, jumps and heavy lifts.

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So if you have your sights set on improving the height of your jumps or increasing the load of your deadlifts, then HIIT is the way to go.

That said, HIIT is extremely taxing on the body, so you shouldn’t do it every day. Doing HIIT two to three times a week is more than enough, and you should aim to recover at least 48 hours between your workouts, per the ACE.

LISS cardio is a great way to add variety to your workouts and prevent overtraining. Mixing in some low-intensity work, like walking or doing a leisurely bike ride or swim, allows you to get some movement as your muscles repair.

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What’s great about HIIT is that you don’t have to work nearly as long as LISS cardio to get an effective workout, and you can customize your workout with different exercises and pieces of equipment.

“HIIT workouts are an excellent way to increase your workout intensity in a short amount of time — 20 minutes or less. You can also keep things interesting by switching up the sequence or swapping out different exercises from strength to high-intensity movement, ” Reed says.

For example, doing a HIIT workout that involves doing squats followed by jumping rope will blast fat, burn calories and activate muscle strength, Reed says.

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In fact, a small study in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research compared the calorie expenditure of nine healthy men doing 30 minutes of strength training, endurance cycling, endurance running on a treadmill and HIIT training. The results showed that HIIT burned more calories than the other three workouts, suggesting that you can burn more calories with a 30-minute HIIT workout than doing steady-state cardio in the same amount of time.

That’s not to say that you can’t get a great workout with LISS cardio, too. LISS cardio can help you get more movement into your day while reaping the benefits of exercise. But HIIT can be helpful if you want to get more out of your workout in less time.

To level up your LISS cardio workouts, Cabral recommends adding different types of activities into your routine, like running, biking, swimming and rowing.

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When it comes to HIIT, Cabral says experimenting with different variables can spice things up. Some ideas: “Decreasing the rest time while increasing the work time or increasing both the work and rest periods, adding more rounds and increasing the weights for strength-based movements, ” Cabral says.

Reed recommends incorporating both LISS cardio and HIIT into your workout routine to reap their health benefits. “My philosophy has always been that every little bit counts. Walk for at least 30 minutes, five times a week and perform a HIIT workout two to three times per week for 10 to