Guidance on fitness routine and HIIT?

[Daisychain96]

I'm fairly new to fitness. I've been very unwell over the past couple of years and as a result have lost any fitness I may have had when I was younger. However the past month and a half I've been on a 500 (or usually more) deficit diet and have been doing at least some exercise a day, but I'm looking for advice on whether what I'm doing is correct- my goal is to lose fat, gain some muscle and become generally fitter.

So far I generally do 15-30 minutes of moderate to intense cardio or body weight training, and 30 minutes of yoga. Opinions on if this is effective?

Also, I've been reading about HIIT and I'm curious as to what exactly counts. For instance, I use fit star workouts (which if you're not familiar consist of 30 seconds of a certain exercise followed by a short rest). Is this HIIT? On my lazy days I tend to do Davina McCalls fit in 15 DVD, which is a similar idea but I never imagined it was HIIT- when done with 100% effort it definitely gets the heart pumping though!

Any guidance would be much appreciated as I'm feeling a little lost! I would also love to hear what your own weekly fitness regimes are and perhaps even some suggestions for a typical home based routine?
Thanks!

[Dominique]

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@Daisychain96 wrote:
my goal is to lose fat, gain some muscle and become generally fitter.

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Fat loss will be mostly driven by your diet: if you can consistently be in a caloric deficit for some period of time, you will lose fat. The size of your deficit will depend on the amount you need to lose. If you have a lot to lose, you can start with a bigger deficit, but your deficit will have to get smaller as you get closer to your goal.

Exercise will either make your deficit bigger (if it doesn’t cause you to eat more), or allow you to eat more (while having the same deficit). Gaining muscle in a caloric deficit is very hard, so the focus will be more on preserving whatever muscle mass you currently have. As to becoming fitter, it can mean various things. If you mean being able to climb stairs without being out of breath, then yes, what you are doing should help.

HIIT is an all-out effort for a short period of time (eg. 30 seconds), followed by recovery (eg. 60 seconds) at a less intense level. You can use any activity that sends your pulse up: sprinting, biking, elliptical, kettlebell swings etc. The problem if you haven’t been exercising for a long period of time and/or are overweight is you won’t be able to sustain the required effort for very long. If you can only sustain HIIT-level efforts for 2-3 minutes max., it won’t be of much help. I would therefore rather focus on improving your general fitness level before "upgrading" to HIIT.

[Diago]

Hi Daisychain,  I am currently on the 5:2 Fast Diet and I having tried many diets throughout my life I believe this to be superior to any other form.  The fasting 2 days a week and eating sensibly ie dropping carbs and upping protein on the other 5 days is working for me. This form of dieting does not force the body into starvation mode, whereby your weight plateaus after a few weeks. However It is important to boost your regular exercise as well.  Currently I am driving up my quota of steps on the Fitbit from 5,000 initially per day to 7,000 now.  Additionally I do twice weekly yoga classes lasting one and a half hours each and a one hour Pilates class per week.  I have also joined a Gym where I attend 2-3 times a week and do a few squats, leg presses and lunges for around half and hour.

My routine is inspired by Michael Mossley (TV doctor) and I also get online support from his website  https://thebloodsugardiet.com/  Michael is a big advocate of HIIT and give clear advice on this site.  I haven't tried it yet but may do soon as it does seem like a quicker way to up my exercise quota.  I am diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes, and have not only lost 5.5 kg but have also lowered my blood sugar with this current routine. I strongly advise you to check out his online advice and/or publications. Good luck!

[Dominique]

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@Diago wrote:

eating sensibly ie dropping carbs

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Oh no, evil carbs are striking again!

[Diago]

Makes a change from 'evil fats' that we've been advised against for decades only to find the 'experts' were wrong! Diabetics ought to sue for being advised to base their meals on carbs. Many have now cured this disease by stringent lowering of carbs in their diet. Thankfully, I am on my way to doing likewise.

[DominicJ]

Weight loss is driven by calories in and calories out

A pound of human body fat is about 3500 calories.

If you "burn" 3500 more calories than you eat, you lose a pound of body fat.

The most important part of weight loss is diet, although you can out train a poor diet, its quite hard.

Step one is to log your food, accuratly, with a food scale, if it goes in your mouth it gets logged.

The second part is calories out.

I'm sure I'll get a lot of flack for this, I normally do, but HIIT is a poor method to maximise calories burned.

If you want to maximise Calories burned, you need to exercise as long as you can, followed by as consistantly as you can, followed by as hard as you can.

HIITs great for some stuff, calorie burn isnt one of them.

Assuming you have a fitbit, its fairly easy to set up a weight loss program where it tells you how many calories you have left to eat each day based on your activity level and goals.

[Dominique]

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@Diago wrote:
Diabetics ought to sue for being advised to base their meals on carbs.

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Type 2 diabetes isn’t caused by eating carbs: it is caused by overeating. That the overeating consists mainly of carbs is secondary. Overeating fats or proteins to the point of becoming obese would likely cause diabetes too. OTOH, many people around the world are eating lots of carbs (think rice in Asia, pasta in Italy etc.), are normal weight and do not develop diabetes.

[Dominique]

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@DominicJ wrote:

HIIT is a poor method to maximise calories burned.

If you want to maximise Calories burned, you need to exercise as long as you can, followed by as consistantly as you can, followed by as hard as you can.

HIITs great for some stuff, calorie burn isnt one of them.

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One thing is Fitbit is not very good at detecting HIIT, even when using a tracker that features HR monitoring. I tried to illustrate this in this separate post. So if you rely on Fitbit for the calories you burned, you may very well be "short-changed".

The other thing is that HIIT is by its very nature something that cannot last for very long. There are only so many calories you can burn in 10-15 minutes, or even in 30 minutes, no matter how intense the effort is. So yes, 2 hours of mere walking will burn more (in absolute terms) than 20 minutes of HIIT. Plus most people can easily walk 1-2 hours every day (provided they have enough time on their hands), but you can (or should) only do HIIT 2-3 times a week max.

But HIIT has special benefits for fat loss (and also cardiovascular health) that go beyond calories in - calories out.

[emili]

I think there is a significant difference between carbs. Good carbs will not harm you, will not cause weight gain and will actually sustain you through sugar spikes (diabetic or not- my husband is type 1, I assure you I can write a book on this). If you are doing moderate to heavy cardio, you need good carbs. This does not mean a plate of pasta. This could be a bowl of oatmeal with strawberries. Or a cup of melon with a serving size of hard pretzels.

As far as weight loss, you have to be in a deficit. I also think HIIT is great, but I am not sure its great for beginners. You don't really know your fitness level or started to work your heart muscle properly to know what is cardio for you vs peak. Having a good mix of cardio and strength is the key to lose fat, retain the muscle you have and then make adjustments to add muscle while not gaining back fat. Good luck to you!