To try the Michael Mosley 'Truth about Exercise' plan

[CountryMummy1]

I have failed miserably at my New Years resolution to get fit. I am very overweight but have managed to start going to Slimming World and have lost 7 pounds in 2 weeks. The exercise however is not going well. I am just so knackered at night after looking after 2 little ones all day and then cooking the tea, I end up in bed by 9pm. So far this year I have done 10 minutes on the exercise bike once! Not good! I do do about 7000 steps a day looking after the little ones so I am not a complete sloth.

I have just watched The Truth About Exercise and the recommendation that we do 2 bursts of 20 seconds vigorous exercise 3 times a week... And that it has the same benefit as doing 2 to 3 hours a week. The research behind it seems fairly sound.

Does anyone have any knowledge of this or is it too good to be true?!

I echo others who have said you have domereally blood WELL. You have lost half a stone so far this new year? Hats off to you! Thats a great start. You need to recognise how well you've done and build on that.

I'm no expert on the Truth About Exercise thing...but it sounds implausible to me.

Could you start small? One exercise class a week? Or get a DVD and do it twice a week (30 Day Shred is fabulous, its hard but only 20 minutes, and you dont HAVE to do it every day. I do it whenever I cant get out to the gym or a class but want to feel like I have done some exercise that day.

Also, is there anyway you could fit exercise in to your morning? I am useless in the evening. I just want to eat, bathe, read/watch telly and go to sleep. Life is tiring! Could you get up early once or twice a week and Shred or do your exercise bike? Or failing that, up your every day walking to maybe the odd power walk around the park?

Whatever you decide, dont give up! Anything you do on top of SW is going to make a difference.

It's not too short to improve health carbe. The science doesn't lie! Hit is one of the few fads that actually has a sound scientific basis. The research done was purely academic, not intended to support a diet/supplement industry. It works.

I've read in several places that this high intensity exercise stuff can be dangerous if you aren't already fit.

I really don't think it's a good idea to do it if you're used to doing very little.

G easy on yourself OP, you've done so well so far

Bake off, as said above high intensity is all relative, research at the minute is focusing on the elderly and there have been no adverse effects so far. If you have known cardiac problems then probably a good idea to check with your doctor, bit being unfit is not a reason not to try hit. There was lots of stuff in the press about Andrew Married blaming hit for his stroke, didn't take into account his other stroke risks though!

I'm sorry I don't agree with you ginmake

Just a few quotes from googling

"London physiotherapist Sammy Margo..... ‘You can’t go from couch potato to high intensity training in one step...
High intensity training can be done as an add-on if you’re already fit but you should take advice before doing it if you’re obese, a couch potato, have a health condition or have injured yourself in the past, says Sammy."

From the Heart and Stroke foundation in Canada-

"Before starting any HIIT program, you should be able to exercise for at least 20 to 30 minutes at 85% to 90% of your estimated maximum heart rate for your age, without exhausting yourself or having problems."

Second Fitness Blender

I've been using their site for a couple of years now and there is always a workout to suit the time you have and your fitness levels.

Given that hit doesn't require 20 -30 minutes at 90% the Canadian advice is a bit odd. I disagree with the physiotherapist.

Oh, and hit (I.e. the stuff that has been researched, the short interval high intensity stuff) is different from hiit, dp's not in at the minute and could explain much better than me!

Well if you google 'HIT and problems' there are numerous articles expressing caution, based on research.

If you think about it logically, how can it be right to go from being unfit and over weight, straight to exercising your body flat out for intervals. It doesn't make sense.

Because an overweight unfit person's "flat out" is much much less than someone who is a healthy weight and fit. If your only issue is weight and lack of fitness then exercise isn't dangerous.

HIT isn't pleasant, doing it isn't enjoyable, lots of people throw up during/after it, but that doesn't mean its dangerous.

Hmm HIIT is great in certain circumstances. It can greatly improve fitness in a short time, but if you're very overweight and unfit, it's unlikely you'll be able to work hard enough in those few seconds.

Personally, I don't believe it will lead to weight loss unless combined with other forms of exercise and eating right. As a PP said (in a different context) the science doesn't lie. You need a deficit of 500 calories a day (3500pw) to lose 1lb per week. You're really not going to burn that in a one minute twice a week. As a guide, you need to run approx 35 miles to burn 3500 calories.

Family - as ginmakes has said, intensity levels are a very individual thing. A sedentary individual may not have to move very much at all in order to induce raised physiological function.

And again, no one is saying exercise makes you lose weight, but it does support weight loss and is essential in maintaining loss.

HIT is being very soundly researched and is currently showing all sorts of benefits in a wide range of sub clinical populations (including diabetes, old age, obesity).

Could we just have this one more time for the slow of thinking?

H I I T is High Something Something Training

H I T is High Something Training

What's the difference and which one is MM recommending?

Many thanks,

A Fairly Sedentary and Rather Overweight Couch Potato

It is confusing isn't it?

That's because the industry has lept upon it and made it work for them.

And science is plodding along afterwards trying to explain what it really meant!

The acronyms have been used a few times too! HIT was a 1970s weight training programme, BIG weights... now it is still called High Intensity Training but is Sprint Interval Training that has been modified.

Loughborough, Birmingham, Liverpool and other University depts are now confident that three minutes of HIT a week improve your body's ability to cope with sugar surges, which means your metabolic fitness is improved. Also improved is the oxygen carrying/utilisation of the heart and lungs are at getting oxygen into the body. That means, counter intuitive as it sounds, HIT will improve your aerobic fitness.

3 minutes a week sounds like something even I (and my dodgy knee) could cope with. Mr Mimsy, aka SupremeHealthNag, will be delighted.

HIT = High Intensity Training

HIIT = High Intensity Interval Training

I believe
But you will need someone more knowledgable than me for your other questions. Watching with interest, I am an old fashioned brisk walker.

HIIT is High Intensity Interval Training - it's things like tabata.

HIIT is the industry stuff - special snowflake classes

HIT is the basic no frills, what it says on the tin version

A rose by any other name... she says quickly, especially as Tabata is just the stuff I have been teaching / doing for donkey's yaars, without knowing it had a special name (mind you I did that with pilates too - weird what has to travel cross The Pond before people think it is a good thing - or even a thing!)!

Tabata was developed by a Japanese professor--didn't come from the US.

www.active.com/fitness/articles/what-is-tabata-training

Re 5:2, on days when I feel unusually motivated (or alarmed about my waistline post-weekend), I find that doing a Fitnessblender/Shred/other kind of HIIT-type very short (15-28 minutes) workout before I eat really melts the weight.

Picky picky.... but you are right, it came to the UK via Fitness First, and they are Australian...

I shouldn't just be commenting on this thread, I should be doing a HIIT RIGHT NOW.

You made me go and look at it again... Universal Studios... Bloody La La Land... are the proud purveyors of training and videos of Tabata!

I am up early tomorrow, 10 - 15 minutes on the heavy bag, it being the morning after a Down Day for me, so I can have breakfast when I have finished.... I too have found that combination melts fat... I mean, where did my back fat go? Where?

There was something called the Canadian Airforce training system, too, I vaguely remember doing for a while. Perhaps not quite as full-on.

Oh yes! 12 mins a day for women, 11 for men! 5BX or XBX!

I used that a lot in my Uniformed Public Service classes. It was fun! Good old fashioned 1960s exercise as torture... really effective too.

I may do it, I have 9 month to get www.fit450.com/HTML/5BX_Intro.html

I have some of the 1870s - 1910s school exercise sheets too. The Model Course rules, with Colonel Fox's big stick