Stave off muscle breakdown while cutting, is HIIT-like exercise enough?

Adren

Hi there!

New to all this.

I'm 5"7', and 166 pounds. My TDEE is 2000~, and I am currently cutting 25 to 15 percent of calories per day.

From research I have seen that keeping your protein intake at least to 0.8 per pound of body weight helps to stave off muscle breakdown while cutting.

The other main thing to do then is to 'use em or loose em' by doing weight lifting continuing to lift what you are able to, or reduce volume or frequency if needed.

The only problem is that I do not have access to a weights at the moment, so I am simply doing a '30 Day Shred' program due to cost, and time. This is basically a mix of cardio and free weights, along with push ups and sit ups, at moderate to high intensity without rests for 25 minutes. I do this every second day.

My question is, is this enough to stave off muscle degeneration while cutting?

Should I do some different exercises, or do the above exercise more frequently?

I also had a question about the exercise it's self, it is suppose to be high intensity, but there are no rest periods between exercises - is rest between the different activities in the exercise program essential? It seems to be an old program so maybe the science has changed since then. Looking at other HIIT workouts, there appears to be rests in between.

Many thanks,
Mark

Mink

Is that the Jillian Michaels one (30 day shred). I did that for a couple months and found it good. No way you need a rest in the 25 minutes. Maybe other programs build them in so as not to put people off doing it again. Having said that, you have to listen to your own body.

What were you doing prior to this to build up strength/bulk? Would you not just keep doing that?

If it's a case that you weren't bulking prior to now, or in the gym, then yeah the body weight exercises are great and whatever free weights you can manage. Just make sure your form is good to avoid injury.

Adren

Hey Mink,

Yes that is exactly the exercise program I am doing right now!

Good to know that rest isn't needed in between exercises.

Do you think I can do that program every single day, or is a days rest in between good?

I was doing nothing previous to this.

Just want to loose weight, but as far as possible not loose muscle also.

Do you think doing the 30 day shred is sufficient for this for the time being?

Cheers.

Mink

I will preface this with: I am NO expert!

When I did it, I was doing it 3 days on, day off, 3 days. I was definitely sore because I had literally done nothing before, utter newbie. Usually a bit of muscle soreness disappears once you do a warm up. But if you've actually strained/pulled something then rest til it's better.

10 days of doing the "week 1" or whatever it was called, I was completely bored of it and had it down.

When I started week 2, whole new round of soreness, same when started week 3.

It's a great little starter for fitness and intro to HIIT. But you end up being a bit sick of it!

I started the "ripped in 30" after that and was going grand til I banjaxed my back doing extremely poor form kettlebell swings. I cannot emphasize enough to protect your back and ensure your form/position is good.