Why do HIIT?

S

sard

New Member
Ok, before everyone starts posting "Its obvious!" or "HIIT is the way to go"

Hear me out, I think my thought makes sense logically.
Ive been really busy with work, so havent had much chance to come on here, so I hope Im not bringing up a commonly talked about topic.

My understanding is:
1. if you have a calorie deficit, you lose weight...Calorie surplus, you gain weight.
2. Low intensity cardio pulls most of its energy from fat after about 20 minutes.
3. High intensity/Intervals/HIIT/etc doesn't burn as much "fat" calories...but it burns more calories overall.
Plus it continues to burn calories throughout the day (afterwards), since it has to replace the glycogen that it used up for fuel.

So my thought is that:
If you are beefy aka muscular but not much definition, then HIIT is the way to go. You have to get rid of excess calories, so you can show the muscles you do have.

BUT, if you are skinny with a bit of a gut, then low intensity is the way to go.
Since you cannot afford to lose any extra calories (you need as much as you can get to keep the little muscle you do have) you should try to burn only calories from fat.

So I was thinking low intensity, 45-60 minutes quick walk is better for a skinny person than Sprints/HIIT/etc.

This makes sense to me, but everyone I've spoken to says "Forget low intensity, HIIT is the way to go"

Thoughts?
Thanks
 
Ok, this will sound totally subjective and will probably not answer your question, but I suggest the type of cardio that you feel more comfortable with. I personally don't like long low intensity cardio, so I prefer to HIIT and get it over with.
It is a little more complicated then low intensity = cals from fat, high intensity = cals from somewhere else so your best bet is to both do cardio with your preferred method, lift weights with enough load and get plenty of protein. That is basically the recipe for everyone.
It is much better to stick to a workout/routine you like (cardio-wise or lift-wise) then to get a marginal benefit from a different routine but not stick with it because you don't feel comfortable with it.
 
If you use long/slow/distance cardio to burn relatively more fat calories then the body will slow down normal fat burning for the rest of the day, primarily burning carbs if they are available.

If you use HIIT which uses relatively more glycogen then the body will mobilize relatively more fat stores to replenish the glycogen.

Calories (fat vs carbs and in general) wise its pretty much a wash. The main difference is that HIIT takes less time and has a more positive effect on nutritent partitioning. On top of that frequent LSD training can cause cumulative damage if the lactic acid threshold is never acheived. This is not to say that LSD is useless. It can be used occasionally as an effective recovery tool after a particularly arduous workout using the phospho-creatine energy pathway primarily.
 
its cals in versus cals out,it doesnt matter what cardio you do,its the amount of cals you burn during that exercise.
and HIIT doesnt always burn more than ss,it depends on the intensity of each workout.
also the amount of epoc caused by HIIT isnt going to make a massive difference.
 
I like the answers given so far, especially bgates1654's. But I think trying to loose weight by exercising is like pissing up a rope. 1 slice of pizza and a coke has more calories than the average fat person will burn in an hour of LSD. You can go to any gym in the country and see the same fat people on the tread mills day in and day out and they are as fat as they were 3 months ago. And that´s assuming they didn't get discouraged and quit after a couple of weeks. You lose weight by changing the way you eat not by exercising. Not LSD, not HIIT, not SS, not high rep weight training, not low rep weight training - changing your diet is the way to lose weight. Don´t misinterpret what I just said.  

<div></div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">BUT, if you are skinny with a bit of a gut, then low intensity is the way to go.
Since you cannot afford to lose any extra calories (you need as much as you can get to keep the little muscle you do have) you should try to burn only calories from fat.</div>
There's something wrong with this picture. If this guy loses enough fat to lose the gut what's the rest of him going to look like? His gut is not the problem, his skinny out of shape a$$ is the problem. Put him a program like SS, forget the cardio for a few months, and the gut will take care of itself.
 
I think one must also consider cases like when fat loss has reached a plateau, by this I mean when one has accomplished quite a bit of fat loss but that last little bit is hard to get rid of.

In the above case HIIT might just be the answer, but as El Viejo suggests, if your nutrition ain't right you're pissing in the wind!
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(faz @ Apr. 03 2009,10:25)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">http://forums.lylemcdonald.com/showthread.php?t=164</div>
Thanks for the link to a very interesting, thoughtful, and well balanced article. I have to make a confession. There are 2 things that I absolutely hate to do - situps and LSD cardio - and I'm always on the lookout for someone to tell me that I won't die and go to hell for not doing them.  
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