Hi Everyone,
I have been away visiting my youngest daughter in Toronto. Even though I ate off plan and did not exercise as much as I would have liked I only put on 1/2 lb so I am very pleased about that and I am eating back on plan now.
Before I left I totally blew myself out with HIIT. In fact, my treadmill actually stopped because a fuse blew out. I think someone --lol--was trying to give me a message.
I wasn't able to sleep well because I reached a point with the HIIT where it really jangled me up.
Lyle McDonald has been comparing steady state cardio with HIIT for the last couple of weeks in his blog.
As a result, I am not going to continue with HIIT. I know it works well for some people but I have decided that I do better with ss cardio. I am doing the couch to 5k program adjusting it to my level of cardio capacity.
Anyway I thought you might be interested in what Lyle wrote so I am posting the link here and will also post it in the exercise section.
http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/blog/

Hey there,

I stopped doing high-intensity intervals a little while ago, when I found that I couldn't control my eating afterward. I now do a much more moderate type of cardio--the old "fat burning" cardio that some folks think is passe.

It occurred to me that whatever I'm doing has to be sustainable, and I felt like I was pushing so hard that eventually it would not be.

Jay

I do a combination- HIIT is far too hard on my body daily along with almost daily lifting.

Is Lyle still touting his Ketogenic or targeted ketogenic diets? I haven't read his blog in years.

Mel

I vary my cardio workouts - 1-2 HIIT sessions a week, rest steady state. In the nice weather, I walk a 3.5 mile "block" in our neighborhood; winter I do a mix of elliptical, treadmill and bike, usually in 15 minute segments (preventing boredom).

Katie, I often use the early weeks of Couch to 5K podcasts for my HIIT on the elliptical. Times goes faster with the music and someone telling me when to speed up and slow down works better than watching the timer. The later weeks when you are running more don't work as well since you're running longer.

The article was interesting, and I need to go back and read the backup stuff, but I think it all comes down to doing what works for yourself! Except of course, what mentally often works for me is not doing anything - and that definitely does not work for my body!

What is a couch to 5K podcast work out?

It means I use the Couch to 5K podcast put out by Robert Ullreys but instead of running - because my knees are shot - I use the elliptical and speed up when he says to run, and go at a more moderate pace when he'd have you walking. Couch to 5K is a program to move you from no running at all to running a 5K in 9 weeks. You can find it here. cool running