uyis11
New member
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
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
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