Interval training v Low intensity cardio for weight loss

[Iron Church]

Are you able to use interval training ( ie. sprint for 7- 10 seconds then rest for 40 seconds and repeat as many times as necessary) to keep your heart rate in fat burning zone which for me is around 110-135 and produce same results as low intensity cardio that keeps heart rate constant?

Interval training would have you sprint and get heart rate up to about 135/140 then wait for it to return to 110 then sprint again etc...

Wouldnt this produce same results or is there more than heart rate in the equation?

 

[future]

BOTH! Do HIIT on empty stomach if possible first thing upon waking. If not just right after lifting. sLow style cardio you can do the same way but really I found my body responded at any time of the day because of it being low intensity. So enjoy the blessing of variety.

 

[cw1981]

Are you able to use interval training ( ie. sprint for 7- 10 seconds then rest for 40 seconds and repeat as many times as necessary) to keep your heart rate in fat burning zone which for me is around 110-135 and produce same results as low intensity cardio that keeps heart rate constant?

Interval training would have you sprint and get heart rate up to about 135/140 then wait for it to return to 110 then sprint again etc...

Wouldnt this produce same results or is there more than heart rate in the equation?

I don't understand what you are asking. Are you asking whether it is ok to sub out steady state cardio for interval training altogether (not a bad idea)?

Yes you burn fat in between your intervals as a result from elevated heart rate.

Also, there is more than just heart rate involved in the equation... EPOC, Excess Post exercise Oxygen Consumption... I believe it is induced from the stressing your heart to near max levels, which happens from your top end sprints and other things like max effort squats.... Results in a jacked metabolism for up to 72 hours after training. You don't get that from your steady state cardio at 110-135 bpm.

I include intervals or complexes to induce EPOC when cutting. It works. I would never do these on empty stomach or first thing in the morning though.

Lots of literature on EPOC and its effects on fatloss out there.

 

[Iron Church]

Thanks for the answeres guys.

cw what i was saying is you could do say 60 mins at 125bpm steady.. or could you use interval training so that your heart rate would go like this (T=Time, this is roughly what i noted with todays session )

T = 110bpm - Begin sprint
T+5= 110bpm
T+10 = 120 - Finish sprint around 6-7 seconds.
T+15 = 145
T+ 25 = 130
T+40 = 125
T + 50 = 115
T+60 = 110


and go again? does it matter how u keep your heart rate in that fat burning zone does it matter if it fluctuates between the 110 and 135 , should average out to about 122bpm at the end of the session?

Also i should say the reason im asking is i want to retain as MANY!! fast twitch fibers as i can with my increased cardio i dont want any to be converted to slow twitch so im thinking the short bursts of 100% will keep them alive as opposed to endurance running where some fast twitch will be converted to slow twitch after a few months

 

[Nomadic Dreamer]

my threads

 

[IJ26]

by no means an expert on hiit but its my understanding that the idea of hiit is to go past your so called fat burning heart rate and the workouts shouldnt be much longer than 30 minutes, including warm up/cool down. i try to mimic my college football conditioning test which was 14 100 yard sprints with a timed jog back. i shoot for 8-10 sprints though instead of 14.... i put the treadmill on 3% incline and do 15 second sprints followed by a minute jog for recovery, some times the jog is a walk at first and recovery may got to 1 min 30 seconds or so. i shoot to hit 85-90% max heart rate after each sprint, itd be pretty tough to keep your heart rate in a "fat burning" range if you are legitimately sprinting