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

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.

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.

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!

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! ^

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.

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.