Hey everyone,
The following is background. If you don't want to read it, please skip to my questions below.

Ok here's my story in a nutshell. At the age of 16, I was 5'10", 220 lbs. One day I became fed up with the fact that I had been fat my whole life, and decided to change. Over the next 9 months, my weight dropped to as low as 145 as I went through a growth spurt that shot me up to 6'1". I exercised some during this period (probably about once or twice a week) but definitely not enough. I followed a strict low carb diet - around 20-30 carbs a day - and had only one cheat day the entire 9 months. Needless to say, at 145 I looked awful. I didn't realize it at the time because I was so ecstatic to be thin, but I basically looked anorexic (I'm a guy btw). So, I decided to remedy that.

I became incredibly well informed on nutrition and exercise, and at this point, I'm 6'1.5" and around 170 pounds. I'm still thin and in pretty good shape but I'm not at the level of fitness I want to be (I want a six pack dammit!). I'll post a pic later when I get home from work, but in terms of physique I'm around John's picture from March 2003. My goal is basically to do what he did, go from skinny but flabby to lean and hard. My ideal physique is his June - July picture - thin but in great shape.

The past couple weeks I've been doing this plan I got from Men's Fitness and it's the best workout I've ever done. 3 days a week I lift, all supersets so I'm drenched in sweat by the end, and it covers all the muscle groups very well. On non-lifting days I do HIIT on the treadmill in a slightly different fashion each day, switching up the lengths and intensity of each segment. I think this exercise regimen is perfect for me as it gets me motivated and keeps me interested since it varies throughout the week.

Here's my question.

1. I want to start doing cardio every day (and still lift 3 x a week). Should I just do HIIT every day, or HIIT on non-lifting days and regular cardio on lifting days, or visa versa? I want to maximize the metabolic benefit I get from lifting and the one I get from HIIT. How should I space this out to my best advantage?

Thanks

Welcome. :)
1. I want to start doing cardio every day (and still lift 3 x a week). Should I just do HIIT every day, or HIIT on non-lifting days and regular cardio on lifting days, or visa versa? I want to maximize the metabolic benefit I get from lifting and the one I get from HIIT. How should I space this out to my best advantage?

Thanks
Why do you want to start doing cardio every day? I don't think you need more cardio. In fact, at your height/weight I would probably be less concerned with cutting right now if I were you.

Besides, you said your plan was working well, so why change it? Just my opinion though. :)

If you want to do daily cardio, I would not recommend HIIT every day. Do lower intensity on your training days, I suppose.

You should remember that more does not always mean better, especially in terms of cardio and especially in terms of HIIT cardio. You talked about maximizing the metabolic benefit, but there's a limit, and balance is an important consideration. With a program that already has 4 HIIT sessions per week, plus 3 weightlifting sessions per week, I would be trying to tweak the program from a nutritional standpoint if I were you. (Post more info on diet, you may get more help that way.)

Actually I'd be trying to put on mass if I were you. :D Again, just my opinion!

:gl:

I am certainly not as well versed as some other JSF members, so from a metabolic standpoint, I cannot comment. However, recently, I have found that HIIT is all I can handle on my lifting days. I lift first so I am strong, in good form, and can push myself. Then I do about 20 mins of HIIT. Additionally, after lifting, I am just about ready to leave the gym. So I tell myself...."only 20 mins left." When I start spending 1.5 to 2 hours in the gym every day, burn-out inevitably creeps up on me.

On my non-lifting days I do 45 mins of mid to mid-high intensity of cardio. I then work my abs.

Like I mentioned, I cannot comment from a metabolic standpoint. But if there is no difference metabolically, then I would just tweak your workouts until you find something that works for you. That is what I did.

Might I also mention, I am in the process of trying to shed 40 pounds and build some muscle definition. So cardio is key for me right now. After, I lose most of the fat, I will back off the cardio to only non-lifting days.

Thanks for the feedback. Here's my thinking: I want to put on muscle, but Ithat's not my main concern. I really have no desire to be big. I want to be the same size I am now but basicallty "tighter." Having looked at John's diary/pictures, which I find motivational, I'm wondering why I shouldn't just do exactly what he did. I mean, I look the same as him in that March picture, so if I keep restricting calories and working out as he did I would expect in 3 months to look like how he does in the June one, which is what I want.

The reason I was considering introducing more days of HIIT is to speed up the process. If cardio takes off fat and ups metabolism, an extra 250 cals a day off from HIIT for 3 days a week adds up to a pound of fat a month + metabolic benefits. Moreover, from looking at the transformations on Bodybuilding.com, the people who were most succesfull are the ones who do cardio every day and lift 3-4 times a week.

My diet: low carb. That's how I lost all the weight, and I wouldn't go back to eating carbs. For most of the week I try to stay under 30 carbs a day (minus fiber), although I don't restrict veggies whatsoever. In the past I've had one cheat day a week which I've used to binge on junk food, but I realized that was definitely not helping, and probably detrimental, so in the future all my cheat days will be high carb, but clean carbs.

Less than 30g of carbs a day is a ketogenic diet,a very EXTREME ketogenic diet. I don't like ketogenic diets as they are not a long term solution (except if you go keto-for-life). Once you start having carbs again,even at moderate amounts,the weight piles back on. Personal experience with Atkins.

A fairly low carb diet is ok (>100g at the VERY MINIMUM) but 30g is WAY too low. Look up carb cycling but beware of ketogenic diets, even the cyclical ones (CKD).

High intensity cardio (Steady fast pace or high intensity interval training) is never a good idea on a ketogenic diet. Low intensity is all that's needed and all that you can do without suffering muscle loss.

Please go back to eating more carbs.....:nod:

Lift hard and heavy. Have a balanced diet.Measure your body composition changes over the next two weeks.

When you plateau ,start adding in cardio. Start with 1-2 sessions per week, increasing intensity, duration (45 minutes max) or frequency every week. Keep them separate from your weight training sessions, MAINLY to make sure you focus on each 100%.

HIIT should not be done on a lifting day. Period.

HISS (High intensity steady state) is ok on a lifting day but add it on non-lifting days first and keep it separate from the time you weight lift (i.e. do it in the morning, then weight train in the afternoon).

LISS can be done every day.

Start with a lot of cardio and you'll end up having to do a HELL of a lot more cardio.

Once you are approaching single digit bodyfat, you might be doing twice a day cardio or hardly any. Measure results weekly and add a bit every week. It really can't go wrong!

Don't go 52 weeks a year adding more and more cardio. Do a 6-12 week cycle, rest a week and see what you want to do next (continue cutting,maintain or bulk), then do another 6-12 week cycle.

Do as little or as much as necessary.

Good luck!

Thanks for the feedback. Here's my thinking: I want to put on muscle, but Ithat's not my main concern. I really have no desire to be big. I want to be the same size I am now but basicallty "tighter." Having looked at John's diary/pictures, which I find motivational, I'm wondering why I shouldn't just do exactly what he did. I mean, I look the same as him in that March picture, so if I keep restricting calories and working out as he did I would expect in 3 months to look like how he does in the June one, which is what I want.

The reason I was considering introducing more days of HIIT is to speed up the process. If cardio takes off fat and ups metabolism, an extra 250 cals a day off from HIIT for 3 days a week adds up to a pound of fat a month + metabolic benefits. Moreover, from looking at the transformations on Bodybuilding.com, the people who were most succesfull are the ones who do cardio every day and lift 3-4 times a week.

My diet: low carb. That's how I lost all the weight, and I wouldn't go back to eating carbs. For most of the week I try to stay under 30 carbs a day (minus fiber), although I don't restrict veggies whatsoever. In the past I've had one cheat day a week which I've used to binge on junk food, but I realized that was definitely not helping, and probably detrimental, so in the future all my cheat days will be high carb, but clean carbs.
You might be slightly missing something, as said earlier, because more does not always mean better. Why not just do cardio all day long and get shredded beyond belief? Because that's not what would happen; you'd lose muscle. Especially with your current unbalanced diet ("I'm on low-carb, but I binge all day once a week").

I think that first you should direct your attention to your diet. You'll be surprised at how much quicker the results come if you just clean this up some. I'm not a big fan of 30g/carbs per day for most people (though your attention to veggies/fiber is good to hear), but I'm not going to argue with you about it. If you do want to do this, I would at least get rid of the once-per-week all day binge, and replace it with a couple of carb refeed meals per week. I'd also make sure healthy fats are high and included in all meals.

Anyway I just think you'll see better results if you worked on the nutrition first. :)