HIIT or LISS

What's the difference between HIIT and LISS.

BTW, instead of reading this you can choose you watch video Here

Probably, you've already heard about HIIT but not LISS or if not you are wondering what this two mean anyway.

HIIT stands for High Intensity Interval Training and LISS stands for low intensity steady state cardio. One is of a bigger category compared to the other.

Lets start with HIIT.

You must be already aware of the workouts people do at the gym. The workouts that people do like squats, lunges, push ups and so on. These are all examples of HIIT. They are done very quickly and take intervals. For example, doing 10 squats then a one minute plank then 20 lunges you get it now. They usually last about 10 to 20 minutes

LISS stands for workouts that are done for a very long period of time and they do not include a lot of intervals. They last for  about one hour or so. A good example is walking and slow swimming.

So what's the difference,

HIIT is high intensity and once you push your body to the extreme you need  more oxygen and you end up breathing tirelessly. You simply struggle to breathe. So what happens, the body reaches for the easiest source of energy and that is stored carbohydrates. It converts that to energy to substitute for the much needed energy. Once, you stop working out, any extra carb is turned back to fat and that is essentially how HIIT can cause low progress in weight loss. (I'll talk about that later)

However, LISS is completely opposite. When doing Low intensity steady state cardio you are very "easy" and you take in oxygen as normally as you would and it takes the body to the fat burning zone where your body starts to burn fat instead of carbohydrates to give you energy.

Here's the thing ,you want to take your body to the fat burning zone as easily as you can and as often as you can. By doing LISS you help with that. It is very effective in losing weight. And for those reasons LISS is definitely better than HIIT.