The higher the intensity the more your nervous system is stimulated and the more your muscles perceive a fuel shortage. The first is responsible for EPOC or metabolic afterburn. A 4 x 10 session of squats, bench, and power cleans burns an additional 700 calories over the next 48 hours following a bout of exercise. Higher intensity sprints provoke the same sort’ve adaptations and EPOC…Not quite to the same extent but a lot more then a bout of regular cardio which will stimulate the burning of an additional 25-50 calories.
OK, now the perceived fuel shortage in response to high intensity exercises comes about through the stimulation of AMPK. Ampk activation stimulates pathways that lead to positive nutrient repartitioning and increased fat burning…such as increased mitochondria and increased glut 4 activity (which increases fat burning at rest, increases glucose uptake, improves insulin sensitivity etc.).
The end result means tempo or intervals will be far superior but they will also be more fatiguing. A LSD bout of exercise has advantages in that it’s pretty much free of stress and is much more recovery oriented.
My experience is that lactate work is unbeatable for fat loss (hiit, as no23 put it).Obviously, this will not work for a sprinter.Since I’ve recently taken up sprinting I’m trying to drop my 16% bf down to at least 10 so I’m going with some boxing bag work on my easy days (about 6 rounds per workout).It doesn’t take too long to recover from generaly and it doesn’t fatigue the legs.
well seeing all of you people are naturaly lean and/or being training from adolesence here are some empirical knowlege from me.
preface:
i used to be obese, i lost a lot of weight (40kgr), im curently sprint training recreationaly (i.e i do proper trainings but with no competition hallusinations:p)
i also went through the bodybuilding phase (cutting and bulking thingy)
so here goes, LSD (lol thats nice) had tremendous effect when i was still a rather large boy so to speak, i used to walk 5km a day or jog till i droped dead, i also ate less than 2000kcal.
now that my body composition is much better steady pace cardio has the sole effect of tightening me up, nothing else, ive noticed no noticable change in my weight levels when i substituded normal tempo days with steady pace.
eating at maintenance simply does not work for me, i cannot loose bf or gain muscle mass at maintenance, or if it happens the changes are very very slow, i have to be at a slight calorie surpluce to gain and at a considerable calorie deficite to loose.
my body fights very hard for the fat, for excample when i “diet” i become rather more sendetery, sleep more, my random body movements become less intence etc.
i maintain at 3500 (82kg 10%bf) at 3000 i lose no weight, i have to be below 2800 to loose weight
well, make of that what you will:)
But see, that makes sense, you have to be at a -ve caloric balance in order to lose weight. If while you restrict your calories you find that you are craving certain foods, its b/c your body senses that and is sending you feedback saying “hey bucko!! I need that stuff in me now!!”, and thats only b/c you had that “stuff” in your system for quite sometime. Physiology always beats psychology, but psychology can trick physiology.