Hi. I've been dieting/exercising since March. So far I've lost 56.5 pounds, going from over 230 to my current weight of 173.5 (BMI dropping from over 30.0 down to 24.2)

I'm 18 years old.

I run 3 miles a day, 5 days a week, and I do strength training 3 days a week.
I portion control my foods and make sure to eat lots of fruits and vegetables, lean meats, and whole grains. Also, the only beverage I have consumed since March is water.

I noticed that I'm losing much less weight now, so I feel that a plateau is inevitable.

To counter this, I plan to turn my 3 mile run into a 3 mile HIIT session. Sprinting / jogging for 3 miles but NO walking.

Also I plan to add two reps to every strength training exercise I do on my strength training days...

Don't plan to change up the diet...

Will this help lose more weight? Thanks.

Without knowing more information, I can't say for sure, but my guess is it might help a little, but it's not going to ramp things up dramatically.

The thing is I don't think you've "hit a plateau". I think what you've hit is probably your normal weight (or close to it). I'm guess that by sort of backwards calculating - if your current BMI is 24.2 at 173lbs, then you're about 5'11", right?

That BMI and that weight/heigh ratio is at the mid-high end of normal. And the closer you get to "normal", the harder is it to drop weight. It's just ... well ... logicial progression. When you first start losing, you have more excess and it'll come off faster. As you have less excess, the less there is to come off, and it comes off slower.

I'd say as long as you're continuing to lose, then keep doing what you're doing. Just don't expect the same rate of loss that you had in the past.

Thanks so much for the input Kara. And yes you're absolutely right I'm about 5'11''! I do realize I'm approaching a more "normal weight", but I guess I'm still a little picky when it comes to my weight goals and weight loss rate...probably because I'm the type of person who wants to go "beyond the average" just so that I have some leeway and be just a bit less "fat" than normal.

But right now I just checked my weight after my strength training session and I'm now 172.5... a pound lighter. Now I'm getting second thoughts D: This whole day (ever since my morning run) I kept telling myself "Alright I'm gonna HIIT the rest of the week." But now that I see my weight dropping again (it didn't drop yesterday) I don't know if I should either HIIT for 3 miles, or continue doing my steady-state 3 mile cardio run for the next three mornings.... >_<

Will the HIIT be overkill? Or even worse... will a 3 mile HIIT burn LESS calories than steady-state 3 mile cardio?

All day (in between college classes) I've been researching up on HIIT...but I find too many conflicting opinions/claims... Some say that HIIT is more suited for hardcore athletes (not me) Others say that steady-state cardio burns more calories than HIIT...other sources say that HIIT burns more calories than steady-state... it's all SO CONFUSING!

Can anyone shed some light?

When it comes to weight loss, a calorie burned is a calorie burned regardless of what you are doing.

This is why people can burn off fat doing anything from working the floor at Home Depot (as a friend of mine lost 50 pounds doing that), using a motion activated video game (I love my Wii) or running on a track with a sand bag in each hand.

There are only 3 ways to change how many calories you burn during any activity.

1) Make whatever you are doing harder (add intensity). You did this by adding the HIIT. So if you are walking start jogging. If you lift 10 pounds lift 15 pounds, if you are riding a bike, ride up a hill.

2) Use more muscle as you move. This is why full body activities like X-C skiing and kick boxing can burn more calories in an hour than something like using an elliptical.

3) Do whatever you are doing for a longer period of time. You can burn just as many calories walking as you would running. It’s just that it might take you an hour to burn 400 calories walking but 25 minutes to burn 400 cal. running. Either way it’s still 400 calories.

I learned years ago that exercise isn't supposed to make you lose weight. There is no such thing as an exercise that will train you to be lean. You can train to be faster, stronger or more skilled, but you can't train lean.

So I tell everyone, just do what you love to do. Don’t go searching for the best exercise to burn fat, because it's like looking for a paint color that will make my car go faster. (It's red right? red is faster than white I think)

If you like I can send you the free report, just hit me up at Matt@thefitrebel.com

Be fit and live free,

Matt Schifferle

people look at calories too much imo. The benifit of hiit is not so much calories per say. even though all studies i've seen on the topic say it does burn more. But fat oxidation, in which hiit kicks the living snot out of steady state.

I'll just leave you with this thought, who is fatter?? long distance runners who spend hours upon hours every day doing steady state cardio, or sprinters who do nothing but hiit with 0 long distance running? *hint, long distance runners have a higher bodyfat than sprinters*

it should help a lot...once you feel that you are hitting a plateau, it is always the best thing to increase reps or exercises

when you hit a plateau, it means that the exercises that you are doing are no longer challenging for your body

in order to counter this, just change up your exercises and make them more challenging