Questions About HIIT and Other Things

[TonyBSRT]

I'm trying to get a routine together for myself and I would love some advice. I seem to finally be making some progress in my quest to get back in shape. I'm down to 214lbs from 238lbs (Some muscle loss I'm sure from taking the ECA stack). I can notice I don't need as much sleep and I feel GREAT! In my other post I mentioned I intake about 1000 calories and I was told that was too little. But, what do I eat? I feel good eating this little bit. I used to eat everything in site and that just disgusts me now.

Right now I have 3 (390 calories total) protien shakes a day and then eat dinner when I get home from work (around 7:30pm). I workout on my Total Body Works 5000 at least once a day, sometimes twice for 30min at a time. Today, I did HIIT after my workout but it's quite sad. I loose by breath really fast and can sprint for only about 20sec, then I go to a fast walk.

Any advice would be helpful. THANKS PEOPLE!!

 

[warsteiner]

The reason you have lost muscle is to do with the amount of calories you are taking in and not the ECA stack. Anything less than 1200 calories when you are training is too little and will result in muscle loss as your body will go into starvation mode and keep hold of the fat while losing the muscle. HIIT is also very catabolic and with 3 protein shakes and a dinner you are probably not getting many carbs, which will lead to more muscle loss.

All you are doing at the moment is creating a environment where your body is losing muscle and holding on to some of the fat; you need to reverse this. Try a carb cycling diet. I am doing the following at the moment:

Sun - Low carbs (125), 2000 cals total
Mon - Low carbs (125), 2000 cals total, weight training
Tue - No carbs (25 max), 1500 cals total, steady state cardio on empty stomach for 45 mins
Wed - High carbs (300), 2500 cals total, weight training
Thur - No carbs (25 max), 1500 cals total, steady state cardio on empty stomach for 45 mins
Fri - Low carbs (125), 2000 cals total, weight training
Sat - High carbs (300), 2500 cals total, maybe a couple (2 or 3) beers

So far (3 weeks) on this diet I have gone from 201.4lbs, 37" waist at belly button and 16.8% bodyfat (Accumeasure) to 195.8lbs, 36.25" waist at belly button and 14.8% bodyfat (Accumeasure). If the bodyfat measurements are correct then this means I have lost .75lb muscle and almost 5lbs of fat in this time.

If you carry on the way you are you will still lose weight but the majority of it will be muscle.

 

[TonyBSRT]

The reason you have lost muscle is to do with the amount of calories you are taking in and not the ECA stack. Anything less than 1200 calories when you are training is too little and will result in muscle loss as your body will go into starvation mode and keep hold of the fat while losing the muscle. HIIT is also very catabolic and with 3 protein shakes and a dinner you are probably not getting many carbs, which will lead to more muscle loss.

All you are doing at the moment is creating a environment where your body is losing muscle and holding on to some of the fat; you need to reverse this. Try a carb cycling diet. I am doing the following at the moment:

Sun - Low carbs (125), 2000 cals total
Mon - Low carbs (125), 2000 cals total, weight training
Tue - No carbs (25 max), 1500 cals total, steady state cardio on empty stomach for 45 mins
Wed - High carbs (300), 2500 cals total, weight training
Thur - Tue - No carbs (25 max), 1500 cals total, steady state cardio on empty stomach for 45 mins
Fri - Mon - Low carbs (125), 2000 cals total, weight training
Sat - High carbs (300), 2500 cals total, maybe a couple (2 or 3) beers

So far (3 weeks) on this diet I have gone from 201.4lbs, 37" waist at belly button and 16.8% bodyfat (Accumeasure) to 195.8lbs, 36.25" waist at belly button and 14.8% bodyfat (Accumeasure). If the bodyfat measurements are correct then this means I have lost .75lb muscle and almost 5lbs of fat in this time.

If you carry on the way you are you will still lose weight but the majority of it will be muscle.

Ahh, I see. But I HAVE lost quite a bit of fat aswell. I'll try what you're recommending though.

Thanks!

 

[suncloud]

with regards to HIIT, there's a few different ways to set it up. i was doing 45 second jog, then 15 seconds maximum intensity. then jogging, etc. you can also do 24s/6s, etc. HIIT shines in a low carb environment, and realistically, all of us had to work up to doing HIIT for 10 minutes, so don't beat yourself up about it.

set a goal of lasting 5 minutes on HIIT, then increase it by one minute per day or week until you can do 15-20 minutes. nobody on this forum could do 20 minutes of HIIT right out of the gate - and if they could, they obviously forgot the maximum intensity part.