[potusss]

Hey ladies..

My cousin gave birth 3 months ago and she has recently hired a personal trainer to help her to get back in shape. She told me last night that her trainer asked her to perform interval training (run as fast as you can for the first 1 minute and at moderate speed for the next 2 minutes for 4-5 times) in contrast to resistance training (jogging for 30-40 minutes), her trainer claims that interval training would enhance the losing weight process.. does anyone know if its true?

And she's planning to lose 40 pounds in the next 2.5-3 months? is that considered healthy??

Thanks in advance for any information :)

[Charles]

I'd agree for the most part. Interval training kind of melds the best of both worlds. The issue is this, when you do straight cardio like running or swimming there are 2 caloric burning states you can be in. The first is an ideal fat burning heart rate which primarily burns fat, but once you get off the treadmill, the fat burning stops. The second is a higher heart rate which burns some fat, but also burns more muscle. The difference is that when you stop running, your metabolism stays active, so you burn calories a few hours afterwards. Obviously, the drawback to this is burning muscle. That's no good. In comes HIIT (high intensity interval training). Here you alternate between a lower intensity and an all out high intensity. In essence you're shortening you work out a bit, burning the same amount of fat as in the first example, burning less muscle, and still getting the effects of after workout fat burning.

[candace117]

Thanks for taking the words right outta my mouth, Charles!

It is an ideal situation to do interval training incorporated into other workouts - I found the most gains when I was doing long runs along with several interval workouts per week.

Also keep in mind that if your friend is breast feeding she will burn a ton of calories per day, and that's where another good portion of weight loss will come from.