Ramadan is here!

Ramadan has finally arrived, bearing with it many gifts and realizations. The first gift is the return of a friend from a far away country. The next is the realization that I have gained so much weight over the past couple of months that I finally started to get back to my exercise routine & watching what I eat. The change is pretty big when you consider that my BMI changed from “normal” to “overweight” (From 23.8 to 27.1), I gained around 10kg and I can no longer fit into my old jeans and had to buy new ones. As a friend put it, I am officially a fatso.

Now the good news is over the past couple of days I’ve been eating more reasonably, and yesterday was my first day of HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training). It consists of 14 minutes of cardio exercise, alternating between 2 minutes of low intensity cardio followed by 1 minute of high intensity cardio, making my heartbeat reach over 170 beats per minute after the high intensity portion. There has been considerable research on HIIT showing that it helps shed fat for the next 36 hours or so after the exercise has been completed (unlike steady state cardio such as a simple jog or walk over a 30-90 minute period). While the machine will probably show that you burn more calories with steady state the overall effect is more positive with HIIT. It takes less time, stresses your body more (challenging it to its limits), actually builds muscle and makes your body more toned. So why spend 30-90 minutes on a boring treadmill when you can do 14 minutes of intense exercise?