HIIT Advice

I've decided to start the HIIT training to help me lose weight.  I don't belong to a gym anymore, so I'm going to have to do this outside.  Looking for some advice or tips from people in the same situation.  I tried clicking on that link in Melkor's post but it didn't work...

 

Also, are people incorporating regular cardio along with hiit, like on off days?  Or is HIIT sufficient by itself?  I plan to buy some free weights for at home training, as I've read that's important in weight loss.

Any tips or recommendations would be extremely appreciated!

 

I'm 27. female, weight about 218, and am eating about 1300-1500 calories per day.

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

http://musclemedia.com/training/hiit_table.as p

Original Post by pchca:

Also, are people incorporating regular cardio along with hiit, like on off days?  Or is HIIT sufficient by itself?  I plan to buy some free weights for at home training, as I've read that's important in weight loss.

I do various forms of HIIT like running up and down stairs and tabata (pretty sure that falls under HIIT). I also do less structured interval training, like hill sprints. I find that regular cardio helps me with creating a bigger deficit, but apart from that I don't see any other benefit in terms of weight loss.

I'm 27. female, weight about 218, and am eating about 1300-1500 calories per day.

How tall are you? Judging by your weight and age, I'd say you aren't eating enough. A 5'5" woman of your age and height has a BMR (basal metabolic rate) of 1728 calories. It's recommended to never eat below one's BMR, because your metabolism can slow down. You should be eating more, especially if you exercise. Check out the phord.com calculator for more information.

Thanks for that website link.  I am 5'4" and the website said I should be eating at least 1700.  Why does this cc website say only 1300 though?  That's a pretty big difference...

The CC calculator can be pretty inaccurate, I guess. At one point it suggested that I eat 1000 calories per day to lose, which is completely insane.

What is a realistic expectation for weight loss with HIIT Training?  Is 2lbs per week average, or does this type of training increase that?

Original Post by pchca:

What is a realistic expectation for weight loss with HIIT Training?  Is 2lbs per week average, or does this type of training increase that?

Doing HIIT in no way alters the recommended safe amount of weekly weight loss. What most people should expect is 1-2 lbs per week. Very overweight people can lose more when starting out, and if you're closer to your goal weight it's around 1 lb per week, or even less. What HIIT DOES change is what percentage of that weight loss will be pure fat loss - doing HIIT will encourage your body to keep muscle while in a calorie deficit.

So I've been doing this for a month now, at least two times per week.  Sometimes running, sometimes stairs.  I haven't seen any results, neither in weight loss or in measurements.

Weight loss is directly related to your daily calorie deficit.  It is not related to the amount of exercise that you do or the type of exercise that you do.  You need to create a 3500 calorie deficit to lose one pound.  It is not recommended that you have a daily deficit greater than 1000 calories.  A 1000 calorie per day daily deficit will result in 2 pounds lost per week.  The minimum daily calories are outlined in the posts above.  Exercise burns calories so it allows you to create the type of deficit you want while still being able to eat a reasonable amount of nutritious food.

Exercising is also critical for maintaining health.  You should do some form of strength training, cardio training, and/or flexibility training nearly every day.  HIIT is an intense form of cardio.  You shouldn't start HIIT training until you already have a good base level of cardiovascular fitness.  Then HIIT should be a part of your training but not your only form of training.

Edit: fixed typo a to clarify message.

You might want to check out this from Dr. Berardi - exercise without dietary intervention=poor-to-embarrassing results.

 While statistically significant, over a 12-week period participants in Dr. Berardi's own study lost about 1lbs of fat - the same you can expect to lose in one-half to one week if you get your diet under control.

 Exercise in general has many benefits, and there's an order to which kind of exercise is beneficial for weight loss, but without dietary intervention there's basically not going to be a real-world visible change.

I have been eating about 1700 calories per day, but using the zig-zag method.  I typically burn between 500-1000 above that each day.

I walk 60min 5x week as well.

I mix it up. I do HIIT (sprints) 3-4 days a week and regular cardio the other days. I strength train 3 days a week. Try to alter my sprint days with my lift days. Since both strength training and sprinting speed up your metabolism for quite some time after I do weight one day sprints the next and so on to keep my metabolism constantly reved. Also on my cheat meal day I may do both. Strength training in the morning, sprinting after work. Many days I dread the sprinting but once I get started I am usually OK and feel really good when it is done. Anaerobic type activity like that naturally increases HGH which is a hormone that stimulates growth and cell reproduction. It declines as we age. After I am done sprinting I am normally in a really good positive mode. It is a great core exercise. Good for the abs and butt and just everything. I have noticed a huge difference since adding sprinting to my normal routine. Also be sure to mix it up and allow for recovery days in between sprinting and lifting and take one day a week off totally to recover, eat and rest. Your muscles do not actually "grow" in the gym but during recovery.

Strongly seconding trhawley's comment, specifically the second part, and espeically as in terms of the base, but for a totally different issue.

Since some of the advantages of HIIT are improved general cardio, you don't really perceve it unless you're doing the general cardio. When you do, it's pretty impressive, and serves to spur you on to greater heights, which is good for your overall getting in workouts.