Burn 600 calories on the elliptical vs. 600 calories during HIIT, bootcamp, etc?

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cookiecat91
cookiecat91 Posts: 20 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Is doing an intense workout like bootcamp or HIIT and burning 600 calories doing that equally as effectively as burning 600 calories on the elliptical doing steady-state exercise? My workout routine for the past two years has been a mix of elliptical and jogging, and right now I'm working on switching over to boot camp classes but am burning around the same number of calories. Just hoping that it'll be more effective, but I'm confused on how it would be better if it's the same amount of calories burned.

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  • SignpostPsycho
    SignpostPsycho Posts: 40 Member
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    If you do steady state exercise all the time, (supposedly) your body gets used to it and you don't burn as many calories. HIIT is meant to combat that and make your actually burn the calories it says you do. I'm by no means an expert and this is just what I understand. But people love HIIT and variety is the spice of life, so why not?
  • tomatoey
    tomatoey Posts: 5,446 Member
    edited July 2015
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    IMO, boot camp will be better, from the point of view of fitness, because you'll be doing more athletic (and just more) things with your body. Big and small movements, across a number of planes, coordination, balance, all that isn't happening so much on the elliptical, which is just the same movements again and again. I don't know what a heart rate monitor will say (not sure it would help much for the boot camp). But I read a study (can't find it now, sorry) that said you do burn more with stuff like bootcamp than you do on machines. Can't say for sure, though.

    In some studies, HIIT, on machines where resistance was progressively increased over time, compared favourably to steady state (I think also with increasing resistance) in terms of increasing muscle mass and reducing body fat. I don't think HIIT is countable calorie wise in the same way as steady state with a HRM, though.

    For the purposes of logging, would just use the information you have.
  • SLLRunner
    SLLRunner Posts: 12,942 Member
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    cookiecat91 wrote: »
    Is doing an intense workout like bootcamp or HIIT and burning 600 calories doing that equally as effectively as burning 600 calories on the elliptical doing steady-state exercise? My workout routine for the past two years has been a mix of elliptical and jogging, and right now I'm working on switching over to boot camp classes but am burning around the same number of calories. Just hoping that it'll be more effective, but I'm confused on how it would be better if it's the same amount of calories burned.

    Elliptical is steady state cardio, bootcamp and HIIT are not, and you would not burn the same amount of calories for one hour on the elliptical as you do for one hour doing boot camp or HIIT.
  • Mr_Knight
    Mr_Knight Posts: 9,532 Member
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    SignpostPsycho wrote: »
    If you do steady state exercise all the time, (supposedly) your body gets used to it and you don't burn as many calories.

    That's only true for people who are extremely fit, and the effect is only a couple of percentage points.

    IE, it's irrelevant.
  • AvesArdens
    AvesArdens Posts: 8 Member
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    Mr_Knight wrote: »
    SignpostPsycho wrote: »
    If you do steady state exercise all the time, (supposedly) your body gets used to it and you don't burn as many calories.

    That's only true for people who are extremely fit, and the effect is only a couple of percentage points.

    IE, it's irrelevant.

    This post makes me feel better about my life :)
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
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    More effective for what? And how are you measuring burns?

    And do you appreciate quite how long and intense a 600 calorie burn is (for me it's around 90 mins straight of intense trainer lead activity)
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    edited July 2015
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    If you could somehow truly get the burn up to 600 an hr, the interval nature would give more non-aerobic benefits.

    Mainly because you'd be approaching the benefits weight lifting gives you.
    But if willing to lift - skip the HIIT, and just get all the benefits of lifting by doing it. Do a little cardio for heart health if needed.
    Bootcamp will likely get you going in that direction.

    But a HRM, if that's the means of getting calorie burn, won't be accurate estimate by a long shot for interval workouts.

    Rarely have I had an interval workout end up at the same avgHR as a good strong steady state workout, normally lower - but when I did end up with matching avgHR - HRM of course thought the calorie burn was about the same.

    Never mind the fact that for the intervals, the inflated HR during the recovery phase took longer to drop than the intense section took to spike.

    So as everyone else has pointed out - you aren't burning the same number of calories.
  • honkytonks85
    honkytonks85 Posts: 669 Member
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    IMO the best exercise is the one you like doing and one which burns calories... unless you've got really specific fitness goals (such as training for a marathon or bulking), do what makes you feel good!
  • 999tigger
    999tigger Posts: 5,235 Member
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    This is one of those what weight more 1kg of feathers v 1kg of lead.

    All things being equal and you know for a fact you are burning 600 in each then they cna still be different:
    1. You get the extra VO2 benefits from doing intense cardio during hiit.
    2. You will get a greater epoc burn from doing hit.

    The downside is that very intense cardio and hiit take a lot more out of you, so although you cna burn a few more calories in the same time they also take much longer to recover from, which may mean its a choice between short intense cardio burns with VO2 benefits v steady state which takes longer, is easier to recover from, but cna burn more calories in the long run. I do a mix.
  • cookiecat91
    cookiecat91 Posts: 20 Member
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    I know they wouldn't burn the same amount of calories in the same amount of time--I'm saying if you spend half an hour burning 300 calories on the elliptical at a constant rate vs. 20 minutes of a HIIT workout that also ends up burning 300 calories, are those workouts equally as effective?

    Thanks for the responses though. It seems like the benefits of HIIT go beyond just calories burned. If anyone else has any more insight, I would appreciate it! Just have always had a hard time seeing why one is so much better if you end up burning the same number of calories.
  • rushfive
    rushfive Posts: 603 Member
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    cookiecat91 wrote: »
    I know they wouldn't burn the same amount of calories in the same amount of time--I'm saying if you spend half an hour burning 300 calories on the elliptical at a constant rate vs. 20 minutes of a HIIT workout that also ends up burning 300 calories, are those workouts equally as effective?

    Thanks for the responses though. It seems like the benefits of HIIT go beyond just calories burned. If anyone else has any more insight, I would appreciate it! Just have always had a hard time seeing why one is so much better if you end up burning the same number of calories.

    Depends on your goals.
    For weight loss, it is the same, same amount of cal. burn. Do what you enjoy.
    If you are trying to build strength or endurance, do the appropriate exercise.
  • Liftng4Lis
    Liftng4Lis Posts: 15,150 Member
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    heybales wrote: »
    If you could somehow truly get the burn up to 600 an hr, the interval nature would give more non-aerobic benefits.

    Mainly because you'd be approaching the benefits weight lifting gives you.
    But if willing to lift - skip the HIIT, and just get all the benefits of lifting by doing it. Do a little cardio for heart health if needed.
    Bootcamp will likely get you going in that direction.

    But a HRM, if that's the means of getting calorie burn, won't be accurate estimate by a long shot for interval workouts.

    Rarely have I had an interval workout end up at the same avgHR as a good strong steady state workout, normally lower - but when I did end up with matching avgHR - HRM of course thought the calorie burn was about the same.

    Never mind the fact that for the intervals, the inflated HR during the recovery phase took longer to drop than the intense section took to spike.

    So as everyone else has pointed out - you aren't burning the same number of calories.

    DA Man! ^
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
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    cookiecat91 wrote: »
    I know they wouldn't burn the same amount of calories in the same amount of time--I'm saying if you spend half an hour burning 300 calories on the elliptical at a constant rate vs. 20 minutes of a HIIT workout that also ends up burning 300 calories, are those workouts equally as effective?

    Thanks for the responses though. It seems like the benefits of HIIT go beyond just calories burned. If anyone else has any more insight, I would appreciate it! Just have always had a hard time seeing why one is so much better if you end up burning the same number of calories.

    How are you measuring it

    30 mins steady state on an elliptical wouldn't get me much past 200 calories

    20 mins HIIT on an elliptical, wouldn't get an accurate burn on my HRM cos it's not steady-state

    Or is this purely a theoretical conversation ?
  • Mr_Knight
    Mr_Knight Posts: 9,532 Member
    edited July 2015
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    cookiecat91 wrote: »
    ...vs. 20 minutes of a HIIT workout that also ends up burning 300 calories

    How do you anticipate burning 300 calories in 20 minutes of HIIT? Some HIIT math...

    300 calories in 20 minutes is the energy expenditure of a 180 person running 7 minute miles for 3 miles. Let's assume 50-50 split between rest and work intervals in the training (in reality, rest intervals will be quite a bit larger). So to get that burn, you actually need to run the equivalent of 3.5 minute/miles - well above world record pace - for 10 minutes.

    It's not going to happen...

    It seems like the benefits of HIIT go beyond just calories burned.

    It's just another form of exercise. It has benefits other forms don't, and misses many benefits other forms have.

    Figure out what goals you're trying to achieve, and plan accordingly.

  • jennifer_417
    jennifer_417 Posts: 12,344 Member
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    600 caloies burned is 600 calories burned, so for weight loss, the effect is the same. However, different types of exercises will affect different muscle groups, so for body composiion, it probably will make some difference.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    edited July 2015
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    cookiecat91 wrote: »
    I know they wouldn't burn the same amount of calories in the same amount of time--I'm saying if you spend half an hour burning 300 calories on the elliptical at a constant rate vs. 20 minutes of a HIIT workout that also ends up burning 300 calories, are those workouts equally as effective?

    Thanks for the responses though. It seems like the benefits of HIIT go beyond just calories burned. If anyone else has any more insight, I would appreciate it! Just have always had a hard time seeing why one is so much better if you end up burning the same number of calories.

    Ahhhhh - there's the confusion.

    Exercise should never be about the calories burned - because that's not where the weight loss comes from anyway, eat less than you burn in total, that causes weight loss.

    Yes, HIIT and other cardio both go beyond the calories burned actually.
    And depending on your goals, one is more appropriate.

    If your only goal is purely calorie burn - then actually do a cardio workout for as intense as you can get it that allows you to do it tomorrow.
    HIIT won't. Attempt to do that, and eventually it really won't be HIIT anymore, because you'll be fatigued, unrecovered, as mentioned above.

    But cardio as intense as you can get it will burn max calories.
    Pick the right level - and it won't wipe you out so bad you can't do it tomorrow again.

    Finding that line can be hard though.

    That's why it's usually just better to make your weekly routine mimic intervals. And get better results from it.
    Hard day, easy day.

    You may even get the calorie burn on average to be the same as intense cardio daily.

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