What are the benefits of HIIT for fat loss?
To begin with, what is HIIT?
HIIT stands for High Intensity Interval Training. Basically means for a short period of time you go 100% gun to your head cannot go any harder or faster in an exercise, and then you rest for a while. The premise is that while that exercise you'll burn a tonne of energy and calories, rest long enough to regain your energy, and do it again.
How do we lose fat?
Fat is the way our bodies store calories. To lose fat, or for our bodies to tap into those energy stores, we need to consume fewer calories that we burn. That way our bodies are forced to tap into our fat stores to make up the difference, or we die. A calorie deficit can be achieved through diet, exercise or a combination of the two.
Why is HIIT considered good for fat loss?
HIIT is awesome for working the cardiovascular system, and can burn a lot of calories in a shorter period of time. It also pushes the core body temperature up, which means the body will continue to burn calories after your workout.
What does this mean in a practical sense?
HIIT is awesome for working the cardio vascular system. It pushes the heart rate from resting to as high as it can go and back to resting over and over again. Similarly to any other style of training, you have to push your limits to improve.
Next, you can burn the same calories in a shorter period of time. Well that's true. If youre doing sprints, and you sprint 100m ten times, resting in between, you've sprinted 1km. if you jogged for 1km, you'd burn the same, or very similar amount of calories, but it would obviously take longer to jog 1km than to sprint 1km, hence the calories per minute difference.
And lastly, HIIT burns extra calories after a workout. I read an article yesterday that claimed that HIIT boosted your metabolism for 24 hours after completion, and read a couple of blogs that also made similar claims. That's not right, and there's no evidence that this 'after burn' effect works for even close to 24 hours, probably not even an hour in most people. But you do burn additional calories after finishing the workout, while the body temperature is higher than normal, extra calories are being burned. Once the body temperature is back to normal, then you revert to your normal BMR.
So, is HIIT superior for fat loss? It burns the same calories at least, or maybe a little more, in a shorter period of time, on the basis you put in 100% effort each round, every round.
So based on that, then yes, it is.
However, only if you push yourself 100% gun to your head cannot go any harder during the intense rounds, and rest properly during the low rounds.
But ultimately, it comes down to timing. If you have an hour to dedicate to your cardio, then I'd recommend a run/jog. If you've only got 15-25 minutes, or you're looking for something to tack onto the end of a weights session, then id recommend HIIT.
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