What is HIIT and how will it help me lose body fat?

Hello Mario,

HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) is a short sprint style training session that helps burn fat in a short training period. I have experience of Tabata training which I use when training my obliques, and a modified little's method that I use for specific fat burn, but other methods exist.

It's a highly researched style of training with some really good evidence of it's success. As long ago as 1994, Tremblay et al brought out a study that compared endurance training with HIIT. Without going too deeply into the science, the study showed a markedly pronounced reduction in subcutaneous adipose tissue (fat) for HIIT compared to endurance training. Muscle biopsy of one of the thigh muscles showed no difference in the increase pre- and post-training period for both groups. So in a nutshell, HIIT showed increase muscle and reduced fat as compared to another method, and over the years further studies have mirrored this.

HIIT seems to cause skeletal muscle to favor lipid oxidation, i.e. burn fat for energy. Studies have also shown that on a low carbohydrate and high fat diet, the oxidation of fat is increased during exercise, possibly as high as 70% of the energy requirement (Hultman et al 1995). So lets think about some HIIT training sessions, and this is the one I currently favour:

Early morning HIIT having only consumed Hydrowhey and some essential amino acids:

Warm up - Optional (I tend not to warm up as new evidence suggests it isn’t required, but that’s a personal preference. If you are not used to exercise - WARM UP for sure!)

30 seconds jogging, 30 seconds sprinting and repeat this 14-19 times (15 to 20 minutes)

I do this training session twice a week, and I do a further 3 low intensity aerobic training sessions as I also believe these low intensity sessions when dieting have their place in fat loss. I hope this information helps.