I read on a thread somewhere on this site (don't remember) the other day that someone said longer cardio was "more effective" for them than HIIT in losing fat. What has been all of your experience?

Hi inprogress, just wanted to let you know that this topic comes up quite often on the forum. Some do HIIT and some do longer cardio. It seems that both work, but individual preference drives people to choose one or the other.

From my experience, I suggest you don't try HIIT until you are used to jogging at least a few weeks. Tendons and ligaments won't be used to the sudden changes in speed involved in HIIT if you go from sitting around on the couch directly to a high intensity workout. I speak from experience, as I developed tendenitis after trying HIIT immediately. I still do the longer cardio because I don't think I am ready for HIIT yet.

If you want to really get a good grasp on what people do here, I suggest you post a poll, asking whether people do HIIT or Extended cardio. You'll get more responses that way. If you're looking to find which is actually better, you'll get both answers.

EDIT: D'Oh! just noticed you posted this in the female health and fitness forum, so you are probably looking for advice for what works for women. sorry about that.

This is a bit hard for me to gauge. When I was enlisted, I suppose you could say that I was doing primarily steady-state cardio if you count the 2-3 long, slow company runs I had to do as that--around 4-5 miles in 45 minutes at a steady pace. I had decent cardiovascular endurance from it, but I wasn't as toned and lean as I am now at age 30. However, I also wasn't lifting weights, just doing body weight exercises and calisthenics as part of company PT, and I ate three HUGE meals a day without paying too much attention to the macronutrient ratios or quality of foods I was taking in. I typically weighed 146 lbs at 5'6" and wore size 10/12 jeans. I can't definitely say that the steady state cardio wasn't working for me at that point because of all of the other negative factors I had working against me.

When I tried Body for Life last year, I did 12 weeks by the book--weight training M/W/F, 20 minutes of HIIT running T/Th/Sa, 6 small meals a day with the proper 40/40/20 ratios. I lost 9 lbs of scale weight and dropped to a size 8 at around 20-22% body fat from a starting point of size 12 and 26-27% bf.

Then I stalled on the program.

I was pretty low on calories already and didn't think it would be wise to reduce them more, so I added in extra steady-state cardio, eventually building up to 300 minutes total of cardio a week. The fat lost kicked back in and I got to my leanest state with a combination of 60 minutes of HIIT and 240 minutes of steady state.

In all honesty, I think that with proper diet and weight training, either type of cardio will work. For me, the key isn't the type, but the QUANTITY when it comes to cardio. 60 minutes a week of HIIT simply wasn't burning enough calories, no matter how "intensely" I did it. I needed to increase total calorie burn overall to get further results, but because HIIT is rather rough on the body, I preferred to raise my cardio minutes with steady state.

Maggie

I prefer the HIIT. It is more in line with my sport - boxing. I have to test the anaerobic thresholds for myself. I may do one steady state cardio a week, but mostly it is HIIT. Either by running or by doing 2 or 3 minute rounds on the heavy bag, or jump roping, or sparring.
The steady state has it's place however. Over Christmas, I was on vacation and took a week off from weight training and the HIIT cardio. I did the steady state for 45 -55 minutes every morning on the treadmill at my parent's house. It helped me recover a bit from the hard stuff I had been doing, and get my enthusiasm back up when I returned home to hit the training hard again.
My personal feeling is that you should do a combination of both, to keep your body guessing, and do different types of cardio. Don't always do the same thing. Elliptical, running, stairmaster, take a fitness class, rowing machine, bike, jump rope. The possibilities are endless. Mix it up!

I can maintain with HIIT and low intensity steady state, but I really don't make progress past a certain point without, as Maggie puts it, more quantity to my cardio. For me that means going for 45-60 minutes as many times a week as I can - + lower intensity or shorter high intensity sessions on days I lift.

I was pretty low on calories already and didn't think it would be wise to reduce them more, so I added in extra steady-state cardio, eventually building up to 300 minutes total of cardio a week. The fat lost kicked back in and I got to my leanest state with a combination of 60 minutes of HIIT and 240 minutes of steady state.



Hi Maggie, it looks like you probably did the extra cardio on your lifting days. What order did you do them in? Lifting first and then cardio or the other way around. Or did you do one at night and the other in the morning? I was telling my wife about not doing cardio and weights at the same time, and she just couldn't see the reason to only go to the gym for weights. Seemed like a waste to not do cardio as well at the same time. Just wondering what you did.

Hi Maggie, it looks like you probably did the extra cardio on your lifting days. What order did you do them in? Lifting first and then cardio or the other way around. Or did you do one at night and the other in the morning? I was telling my wife about not doing cardio and weights at the same time, and she just couldn't see the reason to only go to the gym for weights. Seemed like a waste to not do cardio as well at the same time. Just wondering what you did.

Gravityhomer,

When I did the extra cardio last year to cut, I lifted in the mornings (7-8 am) at the gym on M/W/F and then when I got home from work around 7 pm those nights, I hit my apartment complex's fitness room for my extra 50-60 minutes of steady state cardio. I always left at least 8 hours between the weight training and the cardio.

On planned cardio days (T/Th/Sa), I just added 30 minutes of steady state to my regularly-scheduled 20 minute HIIT sessions.

I know that most people would recommend doing the cardio in the mornings, but my gym is mobbed by teenyboppers (and now some grown up New Years' resolutioners) in the evenings, and the apartment complex fitness room only has Nautilus machines--no free weights--so I liked to lift in the mornings and leave the boring old cardio which *could* be done in the deserted fitness room for my evenings.

Currently, I am doing 50-60 minutes of fasted cardio M-F in the mornings at the gym, and then heading over there again during my lunch break to do my lifting on M/W/F. It's not ideal since I am not allowing more than 3 hours between cardio and weights, but I do manage to get 2 meals in between the sessions and follow up with a PWO shake. Once the New Year's crowd thins out, I may move my weight training to the evening.

I have never done weight training and cardio back to back in the same gym session. Doing this much cardio is already risking muscle loss....no need to push my luck any further with behavior that will guarantee it, IMO. :confused:

Maggie

I have never done weight training and cardio back to back in the same gym session. Doing this much cardio is already risking muscle loss....no need to push my luck any further with behavior that will guarantee it, IMO. :confused:

Maggie

Thanks for the response. I agree you need to separate them. I'll have to convince my wife that weights alone are reason enough to go to the gym.