This is intensivness.

Walking at 2.5 mph might be intensive but it's not a high intensity.

Don't worry about that. Get in there, and push yourself. Reiterating what I said before and what steve said, push your body. Interval training (not necessarily HIGH INTENSITY interval training) is still good, and if that is what works for you, then by all means do it.

You can lose weight without ever stepping a foot into the weight room or gym or track by dropping the amount of calories you are taking in to under whatever your body naturally burns during the course of a day. Cardio and weightlifting burn extra calories, and have additional benefits, and will aid you in keeping your body in a caloric deficit.

Like a couple different people have posted, if you're looking to "get better at doing cardio", then just keep doing it, and challenging yourself, and your body will adapt.

Thanks Steve,

Your keeping me in line over here.

And this is why I asked what you meant by cardio being critical.

Bottom line: It's not.

Cardio adds a very small fraction to the success-pool really. Fat is burned when you place yourself in an energy-deficient state. What's easier? Eating 300 calories less or running for an hour to expend 300 calories more.

My point is..... most of the emphasis must be placed on nutrition waaaayyyy before cardio. I find many people doing just the opposite.

In reality though, you get far more mileage out of your nutrition than you do with your cardio.

You are being sarcastic I take, considering the roll of the eyes?

If so, have fun around here....

NO I was actually being serious..I just thought that little guy was cute. I really was saying thanks for keeping me in line. Sorry it came across differently.

Ahhh, ok. Sorry for the assumption.

What Corn and I were both trying to say to you, just to sum it up and leave the semantics out of it.....

Slow and steady wins the race. There is a continuum with regards to cardiovascular exercise and improvement.




Walking <-----------------------------------------------> Sprinting



In between exists a host of modes of exercise. You've got jogging, intervals, tempo runs, fartleks, HIIT, etc, etc.

The idea though, is to move up the ranks of intensity as you see and feel fit. Moving up the ranks too soon could very easily do more harm than good. It could lead to things such as overreaching too soon or even overtraining, which is bad.

That's why red flags went up when you said you were shooting for HIIT.

Ok now the lightbulb goes off in my head. That makes much more sense. Thanks for the better explanitation there.

Traci

Sure, but, if it was all that high of intensity, could you really keep it up for 2 minutes? Running at 4 mph might be balls to the wall 100% effort for somebody... but if it was, you shouldn't be able to keep it up for that long. I really wasn't trying to be demeaning at all, just that there's no reason to even consider using the term HIIT at this point.