Is HIIT Really Better For Weight Loss? (Part 1)

February 6, 2023 Ashley 0 Comments

Ready to have your day ruined, HIITers?

We’ve been told by more studies than not that HIIT is next level cardio.

Do it, and you’ll burn calories for a full day after, they say.

But, according to an article I recently found, citing some studies on the subject…

The hype over HIIT is less than legit.

The way they came to this conclusion was after comparing three different workouts at Arizona State University. The first was a HIIT workout. (Four 4 minute intervals, separated by 3 minutes active recovery, at 95% peak heart rate.) The second was a sprint interval workout. (Six 30 second sprints separated by 4 minutes in active recovery.) Then, the third was a steady state cardio workout. (30 minutes of 80% peak heart rate with no variation.) Each happened on a bike. Each went for either 30 minutes or nearly 30 minutes. For accuracy, a metabolic chamber was used to collect data. (These are chambers that measure the amount of oxygen you’re inhaling and how much carbon dioxide you’re exhaling; a method claimed to be superior than some others that have been utilized for similar studies.)

And the result was… not a big difference – all in all. At first it sounds promising: the sprinters expended 110 calories in the first three hours after exercise compared to steady state cardio fold (64 calories) and the HIIT folks (surprising – only 83 calories expended). But it gets weirder; because most of those calories (roughly 70% to be exact) were burnt in just the first hour after exercise. By hour three, the difference in post cardio energy expenditure between each of the lab rats was no more than five calories. Then, to make matters worse, the total energy expenditure during and after exercise may blow your mind. The winner on total burn was… steady state cardio (348 cals). On its heels was HIIT (329 calories). Then, coming in absolute last was the group who puked because their testing was the hardest: the sprinters (271 calories). Seriously?

But, wait! It gets worse.

According to another, separate study performed on average HIIT performance, not only is average energy expenditure less, but in another effort – HIIT did not show impact on resting metabolism when measured 23 hours post exercise. All the burn was within 2 – 3 hours of the workout. And, if that’s not bad enough, the average increase in expenditure was 225 calories. Mind you, that’s not after burn. That’s what they burned during and after.

So what’s the big takeaway here?

The big takeaway is that, with regard to weight loss, these findings honestly don’t really matter.

Keep reading to find out why….