Quick Diet / HIIT Question for g'em / transform (or anyone in the know!)

optimistic_

Hi guys,

Just a quick question, I had been looking to drop body fat recently, and with HIIT and a decent diet I have been doing reasonably well. Not looking for a quick fix.

Question about HIIT – For a couple of months I had been doing intervals at a ratio of 1 to 2 (1 flat out, 2 jog), I would try to do this for a forty minute period as well as ten min warm up and cool down. So 60 mins in total (maybe excessive, and would often shorten the cooldown as I’d be wrecked)
Basically, I had wanted to shorten the recovery to 1 minute for two reasons, one to shorten the time I need for recovery to increase general fitness, and two (this is where I could be wrong) to shorten the actual length of time spent at the gym. With 40 minutes of intervals at 1:2 I would be doing about 13 minutes flat out, 27 minutes of recovery – My theory was to keep the 13 minutes of flat out, but shorten the recoveries to 13 minutes, total of 26 minutes of intervals – Will this be as beneficial as doing the 1:2 for 40 minutes? Or should I change the ratio but keep the time? I can’t see myself doing 1:1 for forty minutes!

Second very quick question, in calorie deficit, should I avoid dropping below 1800? I have been using Neil McTeggerts programme, or starting to anyway and don’t want to risk putting my body into any kind of “starvation mode”. (Male, 82kg, approx 19%BF)

(Transform – Jogging in mornings has gone out the window until next week – Injured my foot from not stretching, it wasn’t pretty! But will update progress once I’m actually doing morning jogs with evening gym)

Ta muchley, and Happy Friday!

ragg

'sup

40 minute hiit workout does not compute. Go faster on your sprints you shoud really be struggling to comlete 10 - 15 minutes of HIIT

Keep your cals at the level in the diet book, it works well, no need to drop out food to try and diet quicker. just follow the plan.

optimistic_

Cheers for the reply Ragg,

I had thought that about HIIT as well, but that’s been built up over time, I do keep HR at about 80 to 90% in sprints, surely going any faster I’ll keel over?
I should maybe point out I used to do 90 mins stamina training as well 4 days a week.

Cheers for that, I was just wondering though, following the plan, my daily cals for fat loss end up being below 1800, which is the medically recommended lowest calorie intake for a male.
At the moment I am keeping it at 1800. Not a huge difference between that and the calculation, but keeping that as the minimum for now to err on the side of caution.

ragg

ah right, i see the question you are asking now. If your not comfortable going lower then 1800 then don't, once you are taking in less then you need you will see some progress.

Just so you know, my totals are something crazy like less then 1600 at the minute... the cals you need are based on your body weight, fat %etc.. they are specific to your needs, the medically advised stuff is a catch all calculation for joe everyman.

optimistic_

Thanks for the input mate, One day I’m at the below 1800, then I go for 1800… Reckon I’ll aim to stick at my calculation. It’s only about 80 cals below 1800 anyway! Not even a banana below!

ragg

80 cals, wouldn't worry about it - sign up to his forum, the lads there will help you build your diet...