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Discussionquietcardio·
Unpopular opinion: walking did more for my fat loss than any HIIT class
M41, 88kg down from 101 over 14 months. For the first 5 of those months I did 3 HIIT classes a week and lost about 3kg total. For the last 9 months I did zero classes, lifted 3x a week, and walked 10-12k steps a day. Lost 10kg.
Food was roughly the same both periods (I have the logs). The difference I noticed:
- HIIT made me starving. Like eat-a-second-dinner starving. Walking does nothing to my appetite.
- HIIT wrecked my lifting the next day. Walking does not.
- I actually did the walking. I skipped maybe 40% of the classes because I was dreading them.
I am not saying HIIT does not work. I am saying for a 40 year old desk worker trying to lose 15kg, it was the wrong tool and the internet kept telling me it was the right one.
The appetite point is the whole thing. HIIT "burns more calories" in 30 minutes and then you eat 400 of them back without noticing. Walking burns fewer and you eat none of them back. Net result favours walking for most people who are not athletes.