How do I log intervals?

CarrieDiva2016

I run with the 5k runner app. It’s intervals of running and walking. Is that HIIT?

Thanks.

spiriteagle99

No, that isn't HIIT.

What you can do is split it into x minutes walking and x minutes running - two separate entries. So, assuming you're doing 30 minute sessions, not including the warmup: for the first week at 1:1, you'd have 5 minutes walking warm-up plus another 15, so 20 minutes at 3 mph, and then 15 minutes running at 5-6 mph. Then it would be a total of 15 minutes walking and 20 running, working your way to 5 minutes walking and 30 minutes running.

CarrieDiva2016

Thanks, guys. Logging the running and walking separately makes a lot of sense.

AnnPT77

It's hard to log. No, in logging terms, the HIIT entry isn't a great idea IMO.

As I think you're understanding - but many don't - HIIT isn't really an exercise type. It's a pacing strategy. A person can do high intensity intervals running, biking, rowing, etc., and now the HIIT term has been extended to things that have more of a strength focus, like fast-paced high-rep low-resistance strength or functional fitness work done as intervals.

Normally, my advice would be to log an exercise as its exercise type, i.e., the running, biking, weight circuits, etc., rather than as HIIT.

Part of the problem, though, is that intervals - high intensity or moderate - complicate how to log it. Obviously, you're burning fewer calories when walking than when running (for the equivalent time or distance). Heart rate isn't a great basis for estimating, because higher heart rate persists into the lower-intensity part of the intervals (by how much varies with fitness, among other things) so doesn't match up well with the work being performed or the oxygen demand of that work.

Not knowing what stats your app gives you, you could possibly log it as X minutes of walking for Y minutes plus A minutes of running for B minutes, but that's fussy if your app doesn't tell you the intervals as time slices. Another option would be to consider the rough proportion of running and walking you usually do, do a weighted average of the calories for each, then create a custom exercise in MFP using those average calories per minute. That's assuming the proportion of running to walking is somewhat consistent, but I suspect your app has you increasing the ratio of running to walking over a period of time.

If it were me, I'd maybe do a "close enough" kind of estimate: Compare the walking calories for the total session time you were working to the running calories for the total session time, and pick a middling value to use to log. All of this stuff is just estimates, and I usually just try to estimate something I think will be close, avoiding wildly over-estimating the total.

If my assumption is right, and your longer term aim is to be mostly/entirely running, this is a temporary issue, IMO not really worth agonizing over. If you're trying to lose weight, I'm not one to recommend totally ignoring exercise calories, but if you have a moderate weight loss rate going, increasing the calorie deficit (speeding the weight loss) by a small bit isn't likely to be a big problem. Watch your weight loss rate, as long as that doesn't go too high on a multi-week average, and your energy level and strength stay solid, you're probably fine.

Sorry, long-winded semi-non-answer.

P.S. I like this site for estimating NET exercise calories for walking/running. (Set the energy box on "net".) I think MFP can over-estimate these activities, especially as session duration increases.

https://exrx.net/Calculators/WalkRunMETs

gwinkathy

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