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HIIT Vs Cardio - The Weight Loss Facts

By Howe Russ


An increasing number of fitness enthusiasts are choosing high intensity interval training over regular cardiovascular activity in the gym, firmly establishing HIIT as one of the most popular weight loss tips in the post millennium era. If you're thinking about tackling a HIIT routine, you need to know the basic facts first.

This isn't a fad or a passing trend, so today you will learn why it's becoming such a popular choice.

Although it has only recently crossed over in to mainstream society, HIIT has been used for nearly three decades. It was previously widely believed that cardiovascular activity performed over a long distance at a steady pace was better for both endurance and fat loss. However, recent studies have blown these old theories out of the water.

To go back to the roots of HIIT, you need to look at the two studies which brought it into the public eye. The first of which dates all the way back to 1985. Initially designed to test if exercises helped speed the metabolism, scientists noticed that most of the weight loss results were from individuals working harder in the gym. A further study confirmed this, with three weekly HIIT sessions outperforming five regular cardio workouts for fat loss, despite those workouts being twice as long.

The first real instances of people using this new approach in their training was sprinters and swimmers. These athletes saw HIIT as a method to increase their explosive power of short distances, which is very useful in their respective sports.

A 2001 study from Canada provided the first concrete evidence for HIIT as an effective method to lose weight. Studies confirmed that not only did it increase the body's usage of carbohydrates, which is uses for fuel in the workout, it also increased the fat metabolizing enzyme HADH. This was a shock at the time, because it doesn't actually use fat for fuel, it uses carbohydrates. Better still, this increase in HADH lasted for a massive fourteen hours. []

So not only was HIIT proven to be effective for losing blubber, it increased the body's ability to burn excess fat for over half a day after the workout had finished!

The biggest finding of the whole test, and the one which will undoubtedly interest the most people reading this review, is the fact that researchers confirmed that one calorie used during a HIIT workout shed almost six times the fat of one calorie used during a steady state workout. That's because the body continues to burn calories after the session as a result of keeping the intensity level quite high.

These startling results have since been backed up by many further studies. In fact, over the last few years this training method has crept it's way into many mainstream gyms around the world and it now appears to have earned it's place among proven fitness techniques.

Like all new fitness concepts, high intensity interval training has recently made it's appearance in the mainstream. This can lead to some labeling it as a passing fad but, having seen the mounting evidence behind it's effectiveness, you now realize that HIIT can become one of the most productive weight loss tips for those who are prepared to learn a little bit about it before jumping in.




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