LISS Vs. HIIT - Cardio Question

[TheLumpyOne]

Hi All,

I am new to the board and have a question about my cardio regimine.

Before flaming me, yes I have searched the forums and I have found so much about this littered througout various threads that I am hoping to get some answers all in one place regarding my body type / goals / situation.

I am hoping to hear from those that have made the transformation that I am trying to make.

My goal is to shred the fat and build muscle at the same time. Many people say this is impossible, but I have seen some of the transformations on here and unless the people are lying about time frame, it can be done.

I am 280lbs and 6ft tall. I lost 60lbs early last year and put about 15 back on during the middle of last year during a very stressful time. I took off the weight by eating clean and doing a lot of lifting and HIIT. The 60lbs came off in about 3-4 months. After that I never quit working out but my eating got way off track.

Here is a typical day of eating for me.

5:30 - 25mg Ephedra, 200mg Caffeine, NoXplode (60 calories) - go workout like hell! (empty stomach except for NoXplode)
7:45 - Protien Shake 50g P, 25g C, 13g F, 420 calories
10:00 - Fiber One Bar 2g P, 29g C, 4g F, 140 calories and 9g fiber
12:00 - Lunch - 10oz lean meat (chicken most often) and a cup or so of brown rice ans a little veggie.
3:00 - Protien Shake 50g P, 25g C, 13g F, 420 calories
6:00 - Dinner - Lunch - 10oz lean meat (chicken most often) and a cup or so of brown rice and a larger serving of veggies.

Sometimes I have a 300 calorie protien shake upon waking (makes the workout sluggish) or before bed.

I lift 5 days a week followed by cardio (1/2 hour lifting and 40min cardio) and do strictly cardio for an hour the other two days. Yes, I do work out 7 days a week. I take a day off about every 3 weeks.

I do HISS cardio for the most part.

I here both sides about the intensity of cardio for cetain goals and am very confused. Some say that you should keep your heart rate in the "fat burning zone" for weight loss. Some say that if you keep the heart rate up in the "anaerobic zone" that your metabolism will stay up higher and longer after the workout and that is better for fat loss.

Please give me your input on what has worked for you. I plan on building my cardio routine off of the replies I get here. I will post my progress to help others.

Thanks,
TheLumpyOne

[jblue2124]

the only thing about hitt i would say is, i would be worried about the stress on your knees at your current weight..

you lose 60lbs, so what you were doing was working

[TheLumpyOne]

I had a lot of knee pain when I was 330lbs, but none now. I can do an hour on the gauntlett with no knee pain. I used to only be able to do 5 minutes before they were killing me.

I am fat, but not the typical 280lb person. I do have a lot of muscle. I need to go have a body fat analysis done.

[45poundbench]

Four things OP.

1, you're not eating anything for breakfast, mistake my friend. When you wake up your body hasn't had nutrients for almost 8 hours, don't you think you should do a little bit of munching? Actually, breakfast is your most important meal of the day. Get it balanced, I do 1 cup of oats, 1 cup of milk, 4 eggs, 2 slices of ham and 1 piece of cheese, totalling around 900 calories. While I understand you want to lose fat, you also need to be dieting properly in order to get anywhere. Even if you're not hungry when you wake up, eat. You'll get used to it, I used to be never hungry unless I worked out, but now I can eat because I've become accustomed to it.

2, you're last meal is at 6 pm? what time do you go to sleep? if so, eat a bowl of cottage cheese or something before you go to bed, get some casein protein before you hit the hay.

3, you take a day off every 3 weeks? you are working to hard. you're muscles don't grow in the gym, they grow while you are resting. If you want to see real improvements, try following a weekley workout plan, with atleast 2 days off from the gym, including your cardio.

4, HIIT really hit the spot for me. I feel like I had plateaud in fat burning (was around 13% for 1 month or so) from just doing regular cardio, but as soon as i started sprints etc, after 2 weeks or so I had dropped down to 11% ish.

I appologize in advanced if I sounded rude at all.

[TheLumpyOne]

45poundbench, not rude at all. Just the kind of feedback I'm looking for.

I take your point on the no breakfast thing. I know I need to start eating before working out but I always feel better during my workout on an empty stomach. What do you recommend first thing in the morning as far as content? More carbs or protein or what? I at least want to keep it as light as possible so I don't feel like puking.

I go to sleep by 9pm so I can get 8hrs of sleep to let those muscles heal. I used to take casein before bed but found that I was actually gaining weight (size in my waist not muscle). Maybe I should go back to that and cut the calories somewhere else?

As far as a day off, since I make it a priority to get 8 hrs of sleep I havent really made the day off a priority. I love working out and feel awefull when I miss a day. Maybe I will reconsider but I will probably be hard headed on this one.

1 for HIIT. Thanks. Were you able to still gain muscle mass while doing HIIT?

[45poundbench]

45poundbench, not rude at all. Just the kind of feedback I'm looking for.

I take your point on the no breakfast thing. I know I need to start eating before working out but I always feel better during my workout on an empty stomach. What do you recommend first thing in the morning as far as content? More carbs or protein or what? I at least want to keep it as light as possible so I don't feel like puking.

I go to sleep by 9pm so I can get 8hrs of sleep to let those muscles heal. I used to take casein before bed but found that I was actually gaining weight (size in my waist not muscle). Maybe I should go back to that and cut the calories somewhere else?

As far as a day off, since I make it a priority to get 8 hrs of sleep I havent really made the day off a priority. I love working out and feel awefull when I miss a day. Maybe I will reconsider but I will probably be hard headed on this one.

1 for HIIT. Thanks. Were you able to still gain muscle mass while doing HIIT?

Breakfast, just keep it balanced man. Get some fats, protein and carbs. If you want to keep it light, maybe think around 2 slices whole wheat bread(toasted) 1 egg, 3 egg whites, 2 slices of ham. Shouldn't run you over 500 calories.

As for the casein protein before bed, yes, please cut calories elsewhere because it will be more beneficial to you.

HIIT actually took alot out of me, I was on a cut so I wasn't aiming ot gain muscle, I was able to keep my strength gains though. Thats because I was dieting extremely well and really pushing myself in the gym.

You will have to take days off at the gym, I used to be the same, but realized everyone else was progressing and not me, the guy who was working the hardest! So i started resting more and I noticed more gains.

[in10city]

I see no reason to take a this or that approach. Use both to your advantage - HIIT 2-3 days a week and a more moderate intensity on zero or more days and even in combination with a HIIT session. But, if you do not have the proper conditioning to perform HIIT, it's not of much use so you would need to work up to it.

Some comparisons can be reviewed here: http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/cat...rance-training

That said, combining HIIT with moderate intensity cardio may even be better. You see when you do HIIT many hormones involved in fat metabolism increase. But at the same time vasoconstriction is occuring so the conditions for blood flow to adipose and fat metabolism are sub-optimal. When you switch to a lower intensity after, vasoconstriction lessens and blood flow improves and conditions become more supportive of fat metabolism coupled with the elevated hormones.

[marcodeniro]

I mix a couple HIIT cardio sessions in a week You might want to start off with some HI sprints mix with LISS first. to kind of get accliminated to the intensity.
I am 37 I got my heart rate up to 182 once. I was fine but it took a while toget body and heart used to intensity levels~~dont want to have a heart attack.
these are just my opinouns and what worked for me. I also upped my protein intake to try to fight the catabolism I am sure was going on from doing all that cardio

[steve_nm156]

I see no reason to take a this or that approach. Use both to your advantage - HIIT 2-3 days a week and a more moderate intensity on zero or more days and even in combination with a HIIT session. But, if you do not have the proper conditioning to perform HIIT, it's not of much use so you would need to work up to it.

Some comparisons can be reviewed here: http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/cat...rance-training

That said, combining HIIT with moderate intensity cardio may even be better. You see when you do HIIT many hormones involved in fat metabolism increase. But at the same time vasoconstriction is occuring so the conditions for blood flow to adipose and fat metabolism are sub-optimal. When you switch to a lower intensity after, vasoconstriction lessens and blood flow improves and conditions become more supportive of fat metabolism coupled with the elevated hormones.

+1 mixing HITT and LISS is the way to go. It will give you the benefits of both but also reduce the stress on your body from just doing HITT. It will also lower your chances of injury which could put you on the sideline. Great advice