After a 6 week plateau at a good body weight, I decided I needed to change things up a bit if I wanted to progress from "good" towards "excellent." Along with zig zagging calories (typically 3 high days, 3 low days, one normal day), getting proper protein, and doing full body weight training 3x a week, I decided to throw 2 HIIT sessions in on days I'm off weight training and continue to do steady state on other days.

I cannot believe the results I've had so far from just making those changes. I've only done 4 sessions (2 weeks) of HIIT so far and have realized about 5.5lbs loss in that time which is also supported by some pictures I took before and now. I'll post the entire progress pics when they are totally finished. Anyway, I wanted to share my success with using HIIT to push through deeper into body fat loss. It really works. And it is frankly a miserable workout. I've only been able to work up to 5 intervals; this isn't something I could just jump into at full speed, even if you are in decent cardiovascular shape. The workout makes me feel like I'm going to die, but saves time and shows fast results.

The point of this post is to encourage anyone that's not satisfied with their current progress to strongly consider adding a workout like this to their regime, especially if you are pretty close to goal and weight loss has slowed down. You can do this work out on any machine or in your backyard if you are brave enough- I use an elliptical. Don't waste your time doing steady state anymore if you aren't getting results. Go read the HIIT sticky in this thread and come up with a workout or just try throwing 1 interval in the middle of your steady state workout to try to get a feel for what it will be like. I've found that my capacity for HIIT has rapidly increased with each successive workout, so even if you start out miserably, your body will adapt.

Lastly, I was surprised after doing a bit of research on HIIT that the concept was largely dismissed by the fitness community up until about 4 or 5 years ago. Now, there is a lot of scientific research on HIIT that strongly supports the practice as the best way to reduce fat and preserve lean mass. It basically imitates playing basketball. Do you ever see any basketball players with much excess body fat? Do you think they do 2 hours of steady state cardio every day? I don't think so; it's this type of training that allows their bodies to remain so lean.

However, as the wealth of information on this forum will tell you, HIIT isn't for everyone. It can be dangerous if you have really bad cardiovascular capacity. I believe it's more of a last phase, "coming into focus"-workout that everyone should be working up towards that wants to really get a lean body. Some of this I know might be repetitive from other info on the forum, but I am so excited about the results I've experienced so far that I had to share. Peace

Good to hear.

You will find that those miserable HIIT workouts actually become something to look forward too. I love kicking my own ass with HIIT

Hmmmn, maybe I should give it another try. I'm at the point where I'm not really losing and truly do need to find something that might work. Its just such a sucky workout! But I did used to work up a sweat mad quick when I did HIIT workouts.

I love me some HIIT.

But there's a small window I'm able to use it in my dieting programs. Once you get to a certain point of leanness and caloric intake, the intensity is too great in a workout such as this. As recoverability diminishes with prolonged dieting, you need to be more economical with your training parameters.

...I don't really follow. I've been doing 2 sessions a week for 3 weeks now and figure I have about 6-10lbs to go until I am at my goal body fat %. I am estimating it will take me about 6-8 additional weeks to get to that point. Is that too much?

Nope... shouldn't be.

And each of us have different recoverability rates. Some people can train using the most ridiculous protocols and experience great results. They're the lucky ones. Most others would be driven into the ground, injured with a lack of progress with the same protocol.

In general though, the leaner you get, the more economical you need to be with intense exercise. More precisely the more economical you have to be with CNS-intensive exercise.

CNS = Central Nervous System.

I don't think you want to get into all that nitty gritty but suffice it to say that as you get leaner, you'll have to choose your battles wisely. Weight lifting is CNS-intensive. So is HIIT. What is more important as you get leaner? Either or can be argued, I suppose. But the winner is most likely going to be weight lifting assuming your goal is to look good.

Well, when I make it to single digit body fat, my goal then will be to maintain for a few months before attempting to add any muscle (is it possible to maintain single digit body fat?...for some reason I'm skeptical). Figuring out that mess is what I'm dreading. My tentative plan is just to stick with weight lifting & some steady state cardio & keep adjusting my calories until I find what works. I'm hoping that HIIT isn't necessary for simply maintaining body weight.

The last 6 months have been "fixing" the past decade. When I get done repairing, I feel like I'm not going to know what to do.

Nah.

Hahaha.

I shouldn't say it so absolutely. I've met some jerks who can maintain it year round. Mere mortals though... it's next to impossible. I can't do it. I could if I had the desire but it makes life miserable. I'm all about enjoying life so it's a give and take.

I sit at 10-15% when I just go with the flow. And I'm relatively happy there. It's rare that I'm maintaining though. Most often I'm either bulking or cutting. The only time I maintain is a few months in summer when I hit the end of my cut.

That's a very wise plan.

It's never necessary.

In some cases it's counterproductive as mentioned above. When you're in the single digit range bodyfat-wise... it's one of those cases.

That is GREAT! What a motivator. I have just recently (in the past two months) starting dieting and excersizing to lose this extra 50 lbs I am carrying around. Haven't had much success, so started on Weight Watchers last week.

Then I saw this post. I am not in good shape physically, but thought I would push myself as far as I am comfortable. It was hard, didn't do it for the full 15minutes. Did stretches, some fast walking, then a 10 second sprint (faster than my comfort zone), 1minute fast walk, and so on. I did this for only about 7 minutes and thought I was going to die! But, after I recooperated, I felt good and started some weights and hip-hop abs. This morning, my scale had actually budge a pound... YEAH!

So I am going to try this, slowly but steadedly. I think its going work for me too.

Good Luck to you too!

uyis11,

Great job!

I used to do HIIT regularly for my cardio when I wanted to cut weight.

Now I pretty much do slow state, but I totally agree HIIT gave me outstanding results too.

I just haven't done it in awhile because when you do it right... my goodness...

I don't always like to lose my lunch when I workout

Here's a quick video of me, and Lindsey just about to do that while doing some HIIT...

YouTube - Time to PUKE!

Have fun!

Congrats uyis11 on your gains... losses...???

Seeing posts like this motivates me into incorporating HIIT sessions in my workout. I just started yesterday, and lasted about 8 intervals before my legs were jelly. I'm really looking forward to my next session, which hopefully, I can see improvements in my endurance!!

uyis11 - could you please give a detailed example of exactly how your last HIIT session went - include times & levels too please!

No problemo, buddy. My HIIT routine has changed over the past 6 weeks, so I'll first tell you about my beginning workout and the one I'm on now. Also, I use an elliptical machine.

Beginning HIIT routine:
Warm up: 10 minutes at medium intensity and speed (a little less than where I do steady state cardio)
Interval: 20-25 seconds at 130% of warm up speed and 240% of warm up difficulty level
Rest: 95-100 of seconds of rest at 75-80% of warm up speed and intensity/difficulty level down to 80% of warm up
Interval-Rest cycle was done 4 times.
Cool down: 10 minutes at warm up speed/intensity above

Current HIIT routine:
Warm up: 10 minutes at medium intensity and speed (a little less than where I do steady state cardio)
Interval: 25-30 seconds at 130% of warm up speed and 300% of warm up difficulty level
Rest: 60-65 of seconds of rest at 75-80% of warm up speed and intensity/difficulty level down to 80% of warm up
Interval-Rest cycle is repeated 7 times.
Cool down: 10 minutes at warm up speed/intensity, slowly increasing back up to my normal steady state pace by about halfway through the cool down.

From the beginning to current routine, I slowly added on more intervals, increased the difficulty level of the intervals, slightly extended the intervals, and slowly reduced rest times in increments. I try to reach my capacity with each HIIT workout and it's interesting to see how the body adapts so quickly to the intense environment.

I hope all the percentages weren't too confusing, but I calculated them based on the numbers I see on the elliptical which are not universal; however, the percentage change I assume may be applicable to other machines. I wasn't too methodical in designing that workout at the beginning, just tried to do the absolute maximum that I felt I could handle. Let me know if I left anything out or you have any other q's.

O yea, just an update, I've lost another 3-4lbs since the original post which I still consider great progress. I've gone from 16.1% body fat to 11.5% (assuming I've had minimal lean mass loss) in 6 weeks using HIIT.