New fitness category - HIT

jackisimmonds

can we have a category for HIIT as this increases metabolic rate post exercise

Jean

There are always some exercises that vary for each individual, making the calories burned difficult to calculate accurately. We like to research each exercise before adding it to our database, making sure we have the most precise formula. This formula is based on an average. Once we have this formula, we will add the exercise into our database.

If you know roughly how many calories you are burning with a device like a heart rate monitor or activity tracker, you can override the calories burned field by tapping directly on it and then put in your information. You can also add a new exercise yourself, just go to "cardiovascular" and then "create new exercise." Your estimate will be added to your personal database, and not the main database.

If you don't want to use a heart rate monitor or similar device, you can make a rough estimate. This won't be as accurate as an activity tracker. To do this, you can try substituting another exercise already in our database.

If you are interested in an activity tracker, you may want to look into our third party integrations. Several of our integrations offer solutions for monitoring your calorie burn over the course of the day and can update your MyFitnessPal calorie goals based on this data.

​Alternatively, we have also recently added a new "Workout Routines" feature (only available in English for now) that allows you to build an entire gym routine from a large database of both strength and cardiovascular exercises. Users wanting to add a new multi-part exercise may want to try adding a Workout Routine instead of creating a separate exercise. For more information please see: https://support.myfitnesspal.com/hc/articles/360036071232-Gym-Workouts

AnnPT77

Way too many things are called "HIT" or "HIIT" or similar these days - varied exercise types and intensities. If you're doing calisthenics-style HIIT, log it as calisthenics. If you're doing high-rep low-weight strength HIIT, log it as circuit training. If you're doing cardiovascular exercise HIIT (which is pretty old school at this point), log it as the type of CV exercise it is (running or cycling or whatever).

The afterburn (EPOC, excess post-exercise oxygen consumption) is seriously overrated. Most solid estimates put it in the range of 15% +/-, and that's a percentage of the base exercise calories. Since true HIIT is high intensity, its duration is inherently limited. We can't stay at high intensity very long (relatively speaking) because it's too fatiguing/taxing. So we're talking about a percentage of a limited calorie burn, even if it's high burn per minute.

Moderate intensity exercise also has EPOC. Commonly, research seems to find it to be around half as big on average as the EPOC from high intensity exercise of the same type . . . but that's on a percentage basis. So, maybe 7% or so of the base calories, roughly.

Once you do the arithmetic, the absolute calorie difference in the EPOC from a realistic duration of high intensity exercise is typically a trivial number of calories more than the EPOC from a realistic duration of moderate intensity exercise. On top of that, if the HIIT is more fatiguing, it can make us drag through the rest of the day and burn fewer calories in our daily life, wiping out some of the exercise calorie burn on net.

If I do HIIT at (arbitrary but fairly generous number) 500 calories an hour, the EPOC would be roughly around 75 calories. If I'd done moderate intensity exercise at (arbitrary but conservative number) 200 calories for an hour, the EPOC would be around 14 calories. It's probable that I (personally) would do more moderate intensity exercise, and be less fatigued so more energetic the rest of the day . . . but even if that weren't true and the duration was equal (and those arbitrary numbers accurate), we'd be talking about something like 61 calories in this example.

As noted above, you can estimate your EPOC and add it to the calories for the exercise if you want, but it's likely to be immaterial in the big picture, numerically speaking.

BTW, a heart-rate based calorie estimate from a heart rate monitor or fitness tracker runs a fair risk of over-estimating HIIT calorie burn because heart rate recovery lags in the lower-intensity interval part of the workout, so that's a thing to watch out for.

I'm sorry if this seems cranky, but I feel impatient about how much the blogosphere seems to glorify EPOC, but mostly talks about "double the percent" rather than doing the arithmetic and realizing the absolute difference in calories really isn't make or break.

High intensity exercise has a useful place in a well-rounded fitness program, but it's way oversold lately, it seems like. It's disproportionately fatiguing, some types carry an increased risk of injury, and more. Elite athletes, who have the best and most scientific coaching and training available, don't do all HIIT or all high-intensity exercise all the time. I don't know why us regular people would want to, personally.