calorie burn during high intensity training

cronus404

I have been doing HIT training on an airdyne for the past week because I read that it would increase my overall calorie burn. I noticed though that I'm burning less calories during my sessions than i was when i was just working out at a moderate pace. Even though ive read that this will help me lose more weight im concerned since im not seeing the results in my calories burned. Does anyone know how burning less calories during exercise will equate to more burned calories overall or has anyone had any success using this method on the airdyne?

jen5698

It depends on whether or not you're really doing HIIT. Do you use a heart rate monitor? If you do then you should be getting your heart rate up to high 80% of your max heart rate, and then your recovery rate should really only drop to about 70% of your max. The reason HIIT intervals work better than moderate exercise is that it keeps your heart rate above what it would be if you were doing a moderate workout.

For example my max heart rate is about 188bpm, when I do a HIIT workout I try to get my heart rate up to 180 (I don't always succeed though!) and then when I do a recovery interval I don't let it drop to below 160. If it does then I shorten the recovery interval. The fitter you are the smaller the recovery interval needed, and sometimes you may need to either increase the intensity or increase the length of the high intensity interval to get your heart rate up there.

So basically, it burns more calories because it keeps your heartrate higher almost constantly than a moderate workout would achieve, and because you're doing intervals with recovery periods you can keep it higher longer, whereas it would be waaay harder to keep your heartrate that high while doing the same intensity level constantly.

I really hope that helps.