As it happened, my mom was in town recently, and her main exercise staple is HIIT running—one minute running, one minute walking, five times for a total of 10 minutes of exercise.  My sister Leanna and I decided to join her for a workout.  The workout itself was embarrassingly taxing; I’m supposed to be in decent shape, after all, with all the biking I’ve been doing.  You wouldn’t know it for all the gasping and coughing, though!

When we finished up, I waited a few minutes and synced my bodybugg.   I wasn’t surprised to see that it had spiked my calorie burn rate quite nicely (up from my sedentary 1-2 calories per minute to about 8 a minute for those killer 10 minutes).  But when I checked again later, I saw that my burn rate was back in my standard ho-hum range after just a couple of minutes.

Intervals are good for other things, though, and I wanted to get at least a few data samples, so Daniel and I did 30-second intervals on the road bikes one evening for 1o minutes total (in addition to the rest of the ride).  This didn’t spike my calorie burn rate as much as running (I’m guessing because I at least have the muscles for this sport) but still moved it up nicely.  No long term burn, though.

We did more road bike intervals the next night, and I ran the one-minute intervals with Leanna the day after that.  No ongoing metabolism increase followed.

So now the question is, of course, where is the misinformation?  Is the HIIT claim inaccurate, or is the bodybugg not picking up on the effect for some reason?   I honestly have no idea, and really no way of finding out.

I’m going to continue to do intervals regardless, running because I want to encourage Leanna and I figure it’s probably good cross-training in small doses, and cycling because I want to develop the ability to sprint a little more effectively.  But it seems that I’ll need to motivate myself with gains in sport-specific efficiency rather than magical weight loss!

The basic premise of the book is that insulin spikes (the body’s natural reaction when we dump a lot of blood-sugar-producing carbs into it) cause weight gain or discourage weight loss. Keep the insulin regulated, they say, and you’ll be much more likely to lose weight.

How do you keep the insulin spikes to a minimum? Stop eating loads of carbs by themselves. Don’t get me wrong: this is not a low-carb book. The specific solution the book recommends is pairing your carbs with proteins. Eating protein at the same time as (or right before) carbs regulates your blood sugar, which in turn, regulates your insulin.

In practical terms, this means that if I’m about to eat popcorn (I love those Pop Secret 100-calorie packs), I have a string cheese right beforehand. It means having chicken with your pasta, instead of just pasta. The book has lots of great suggestions for specific foods to eat, as well as recipes for balanced meals.

As I mentioned before, I don’t show any of the symptoms of being “Insulin Resistant”, but I believe this is a good concept for anyone seeking to eat more healthfully. I have a hard time finding an appealing protein, sometimes, so I can’t say I’m a perfect follower of the plan, but I do try to “link” my carbs with some proteins more regularly now. I figure that doing it 50% or 75% of the time is still a whole lot better than 0%!

If you don’t have any reason to believe you’re insulin resistant, I’d say that this is something to keep in mind: try to eat 7 grams of protein for every 15 grams of carbohydrates. If you think you might be insulin resistant (particularly if the weight just won’t go down despite good exercise and eating habits), you should probably get this book.

If you’re ready to try High-Intensity Interval Training, you’re in luck. You can get started today!

One of the great things about HIIT is that it’s very flexible. You can do any exercise you like, as long as that exercise can make you work. Go back to your childhood with a jump rope! Transform the stationary bike from a spare clothes-hanger to a beast that does your bidding! Lace up those shoes and go for a (short) run! Or, do what I did…

I originally thought maybe I’d bike my way to HIIT glory. That lasted precisely one workout—not because it was so awful (though it was hard), but because it took about three times as long as the actual workout for me to get dressed for it and changed when I was done.

I thought I’d dig out the old jump rope and do that instead. After all, there were no worries about no bike shorts, bike shoes, garage door opening and closing, or figuring out where to ride hard but not for long. The only problem was… I couldn’t find the jump rope.

No excuses

What I ended up doing, and what I recommend to you if you have even a little doubt on what to do, was an old drill from P.E. class. It’s this simple: pick a line and jump over it, side to side, back and forth. Jump with your feet together (both feet leave the ground and land at the same time). Clear the line with each jump. You’ll just be landing in two spots, over and over.

This isn’t the most thrilling exercise, but trust me, it will get your heart rate up. If you have something else in mind, by all means, give it a go. But if you find “the process” to be an excuse, give the jumping a try… all you need is a line (mine was frequently a line of light from the window).

The workout

Once you’ve chosen what you’re going to do, get ready to do it. You’ll need a clock you can see or a watch you can glance at. This is because you will be doing 30-second intervals: 30 seconds of hard work, followed by 30 seconds of active rest, and back again.

For your first workout, you’ll exercise for just four minutes. Well, you should do a little bit of warm-up first, so you don’t freak your muscles out, so figure another couple of minutes for that. But when you are ready to get going, just start working.

You’re shooting for about 90% of your “personal maximum” when you’re “working”—it’s subjective, but you’re definitely pushing yourself. During your recovery, try for about 50%.

On day one:
Work hard for 30 seconds
Recover for 30 seconds
Work hard for 30 seconds
Recover for 30 seconds
Work hard for 30 seconds
Recover for 30 seconds
Work hard for 30 seconds
Recover for 30 seconds

That’s four minutes total.

Plan on doing three HIIT workouts each week. Your second workout will be exactly the same as the first one (except that you’ll likely feel less as though you’re going to keel over and die).

Your third workout changes just a little: you add on another minute. You’re still doing the 30-second intervals, just an extra pair.

Follow this pattern for the full eight weeks: do two workouts, then increase your time by one minute for the next two workouts, then increase your time by one minute for the next two workouts… etc. You’ll start at four minutes and finish at 15 minutes.

For those of you who are visual, you might like the way it’s laid out in this HIIT chart (note that the “third” 5 minute workout should actually be 6 minutes).

Now for the hard part…

You actually have to go do it. But you can! You’re talking about working up to fifteen minutes. You can so do this!

I’d be very interested to hear what exercise you choose, so by all means, leave a comment!

High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT for short) is both an exercise philosophy and a “program.” The specifics vary a little depending on who you talk to, but the idea is that you can use short bursts of exercise to get stronger and burn more fat than with traditional aerobic exercise.

The key point (the thing that makes a program a HIIT program) is that you work very hard for a short amount of time, usually 30-60 seconds, and then recover (while still moving) for a similar amount of time. You do this several times, according to the plan you’re following—work, recover, work, recover…

I’ve seen this idea directed at both weight lifters and (hopeful) weight losers, but even when pitched to body builders, it’s typically promoted as a way to take the body fat percentage down and reveal the muscles that they work so hard to develop.

It’s not just a hype thing, either, as far as I can tell; the proponents run a rather remarkable gamut from heart doctors to muscle-heads. The story is that alternating between intense work and active rest brings up the metabolism—and keeps it up, for hours and hours after the workout ends.

Here’s the next great feature: the workouts themselves are short. The only real downside to this is that sometimes it makes it too easy to put the workout off—you tell yourself, “It’s only a few minutes. I can squeeze it in later.”

I’ve seen different program outlines, most ranging from about five to fifteen minutes. One doctor recommends ten minutes. The plan I like best (from looking at it!) is one that starts out at four minutes and works up to fifteen minutes over eight weeks.

In my next post, I’ll be discussing actual implementation. In the meantime, if you’re interested in learning more about the results of HIIT, take a look at this chart showing a comparison of HIIT vs. endurance exercise