Reply to Do I really have to do cardio lose weight?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Isn't HIIT cardio & strength combined?  I thought just about anything that raises your heart rate (ie. get breathless) is cardio.[/quote]

I think "cardio" is generally a shorthand for "aerobic exercise," which is a sustained exercise that raises your heart rate without inducing an anaerobic state. HIIT is short bursts of anaerobic exercise alternated with periods of less intense exercise. So technically, HIIT isn't cardio.

You're correct that HIIT probably obtains most of the same benefits of cardio. The traditional thinking was that increases in heart rate needed to be consistent and sustained for 20 minutes to produce cardio benefits. The increasing weight of the evidence is that repeatedly spiking your heart rate produces very similar benefits, so you can probably get the major benefits of cardio without actually doing cardo by performing strength training as HIIT.

But I think its fair to say HIIT has weight loss benefits that cardio alone does not:

- It helps increase muscle mass (or avoid loss of muscle mass during extreme dieting), which is very important for avoiding rebounding weight gain after concluding a diet;
 - It burns more calories per time spent than cardio, so its somewhat more efficient;
 - Some studies suggest that the trailing effect on your metabolism is longer for HIIT than cardio; e.g. you stop burning "extra" calories shortly after stepping off a cardio machine but continue burning extra calories the remainder of the day with HIIT.

There's also the intangible benefit, which is that some people who can't get into cardio can get into and sustain HIIT; see, e.g. the millions of people who couldn't get themselves into the gym until they became CrossFit freaks.[/quote]

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