Oh this is great info!! Okay so I should race on the bike as hard as I can for 20 sec and then 1 min. recovery? This is for 20-30 min. And its okay to do weights on the same day? When you say the rest is a steady state workout do you do cardio other times durning the week in addition to HIIT or is that not needed? Can you spell out your workout schedule for me? I want these inches gone!! Going to Cancun in March....

Recovery for spin class is about 15-30 seconds and about the same for the high intensity intervals but it varies. It switches back and forth a lot.

Nice to see you Julia!

Julia's experience is the same as mine. After years of doing 60 minutes or more on the elliptical, I cahnged to 3 days of weight training and 1-2 days of HIIT. It made a huge difference in the way I look and feel. Lifting weights has completely reshaped my body, and I've lost 35 inches in less than 6 months (including 8 inches in my waist!).

What works for fat loss is long, steady running and NOT replacing the burned calories. Taubes makes the point that exercise alone doesn't cause weight loss because you eat more to compensate.

Lowcarbing means less available sugar for high-heart-rate exercise. You aren't working at the upper end of your heart rate unless you're gasping, barely able to continue. It's this extreme stress to the system that stimulates Growth Hormone release. GH is like steroids in how it affects the body: muscle development with concomitant fat loss.

I've used a lowcarb diet for several years. My weight has gone from 210 to 165. I did it with long distance running. I've done 50 mile races while in ketosis. I have never been able to work effectively at 95% of max heart rate unless I've ingested some fast carbs first. The trick is to use a heart rate monitor. After the sprint I wait for my heart rate to fall back to resting levels: between 50 and 70 beats per minute. Then the next sprint. Long distance running works for me because I realize I must watch what I eat and not give in to hunger urges caused by exercise.

Low level exercise burns fat. But I have to run 35 miles to burn one pound of fat. More importantly, I must not refuel with carbs after my daily workout. Right now I'm averaging 50 miles a week running.

I think the bottom line, though no one likes to hear it, is that it all boils down to calorie consumption, no matter what they are.

We prefer low carb because it keeps us fuller longer, but in the end, unless you're porking down a pile of fat, it's pretty low cal.

And yes, I never eat the calories I burn - otherwise I'd still be 142!

Hi Miss Kathy! Nice to see you too!

Miss Greys - I will PM you, or if I can't (i don't think you have 25posts yet) then you can email me at woody411~sbcglobal.net and I'll give you the deets!

To the OP--the spinning workout you described is moderate intensity interval work, not HIIT. HIIT is a specific protocol of 5 to 10 minutes of sprints, like 8sec sprint/12 sec recovery up to about 15sec sprint, 45sec recovery. Some do 30sec/60sec, too. Then you can follow this up with 10 more minutes of lighter intensity steady state cardio to help burn off the fatty acids you've freed up with the intervals. Add a 5 minute warmup and 5min cooldown, and there's your workout.

Nothing wrong with your spinning if you like it! It's all about burning calories.

As for how many carbs you'd need, this is soooo individual. Really, endurance cardio like marathon running (not sprinting or competitive cycling) and low rep, high weight resistance training are not big glycogen hogs, so high levels of carbs are not needed. Maybe 5 to 50gC around the session, something you have to play with and see what you need.

Sprinting, other forms of HIIT, and higher repetition/lower weight resistance training (depletion style) will use more glycogen, so will need more carbs. Again, how many more will depend on the individual and their intensity.

Iluvgreys, you might want to check out the link in my sig to "My other home", a forum dedicated to women who are interested in weight training and low carbing. Joooolia is a member there, so it can't be all that scary,

Yes! Miss Greys! Follow the link! Follow the link!

COME TO THE OTHER SIDE...............................

Scared?


(come on Dane, you know I'm scary.. RARRRR! - there, see, scared ya - my day is complete)

I'll meet ya over there!

Iluvgreys,
You can do intervals with just about every cardio movement available..

I think doing bleachers is very intense and effective..you run up the bleachers and walk down for your recovery..run up, walk down..

Here is a pretty good article from Muscle Media when they were a cool publication.

http://www.musclemedia.com/training/hiit.asp

when i do HIIT, i can only go for 20-30 min, 5 min warm up in begining , 5 min cool down and in the middle it's alternation of 1 min very high intensity with 1 min recovery. i do it on elliptical and during high intensity intervals i increase the speed and the level as much as i can handle and decrease both for recovery sessions. how i feel that it's working better than my old long, hour long medium intensity cardio sessions? i know it because i am sweating A LOT only after 2-3 min of it, as opposed to after 30 min of moderate intensity that i used to do..

If you can do it for a minute, it's not HIIT.

Not trying to be bitchy or knowitall-ish, just stating a fact.

HIIT is when you can only do it for 20 or 30 seconds without DYING and only 8 intervals without wanting to kill yourself because your legs are on fire.

If you're doing a minute, you're only doing intervals. Which are GREAT, don't get me wrong, but it's not HIIT.


Julia

what's the difference b/w intervals and HIIT in terms of its effectiveness? i do feel like i'm gonna die during that minute but if you say it's not what real HIIT is than i think i will try to do the high intensity intervals harder... how fast should i go? what my heart rate should be? should i increase the level or just my own speed?
i really want to do it right... just thought i was already :-(

There are a lot of formulas but this one works for many: 220 minus your age is your maximum heart rate. For me that's 220 minus 50 so my maximum would be 170. However I regularly max at 180 or so when doing sprints on the treadmill. 95% of max would be 170 for me. I need to be warmed up and have the treadmill set at 12% grade and running at 10:00 pace to be able to get to 95% and maintain that at between 30 and 60 seconds. A few months ago my limit was 8% grade and 5:00 pace so you have to be willing to make it harder as you become more adapted to the workout.

So you feel like you're gonna die? How long can you keep the feeling? One second or 60 seconds or what? ;-)

Here is a GREAT article that explains it:

http://www.myfit.ca/archives/viewan...e=fitness&ID=55

I don't pay attention to my heart rate though - I know that when it feels like I'm going to throw up my heart, I'm doing it right. Hee hee.

DON'T stop doing your intervals though, just throw in a couple of HIIT sessions a week instead of them.

The article explains it well. It mentions the Laval U. study. I remember when Runners World magazine had a one-paragraph mention of the study. This was probably 10-12 years ago. At the time the authors admitted they had no idea why the exercise caused so much weight loss. Now it's fairly well understood that extreme effort stimulates a lot of Growth Hormone which acts like a steroid in the body: burning fat while stimulating muscle growth. But you have to be physically able to do it. The subjects in the Laval Study were all college students already in good shape.

Thanks for the article, there is always something new to learn.
I guess i'll try to alternate my interval sessions with HIIT and see what happens..
I have a question though: does body adapt to HIIT to the the point that it's not effective anymore? and if it does, how do i prevent it? is it better to try to increase the intensity or take a little break from HIIT for a week or two and then start doing it again (do "HIIT cycling" in a way)?