Not long ago, I got an e-mail from someone who wanted to use Tabata intervals for weight loss.
“Does Tabata work for weight loss?” he wrote. “Everything I’ve read on the subject says you can lose fat with a 4-minute workout.”
It’s an interesting question, and I’ve wondered the same thing many times.
Because I’m fundamentally lazy, I’m always looking for ways to get better results in less time. And this question started me thinking about it again:
Is it really possible to lose fat with a 4-minute workout? Does the Tabata workout work for weight loss?
I’ll tell you exactly what I think in a moment. First, here’s a little background.
What is the Tabata Workout?
Back in 1996, a Japanese scientist by the name of Izumi Tabata published a study that compared conventional aerobic exercise with high-intensity interval training (HIIT) [1].
In Tabata’s study, one group did a full 60 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise five days per week.
Group two also trained five days a week, but performed up to eight 20-second sprints of high-intensity cycling with a 10-second rest (pedaling at a slower rate) in between.
On the fifth day the interval group also did 30 minutes of steady-state exercise at 70% of their VO2max. This was followed by four intervals.
Tabata found that athletes on the HIIT program, which has become known as the Tabata Protocol, improved their VO2max and anaerobic capacity to a greater extent than athletes on a typical endurance training regime.
That’s despite the big difference in the amount of time each group spent working out.
In the steady-state group, VO2max increased by around 10%. Subjects in the the HIIT group, however, registered a gain of approximately 15%.
These results demonstrate why the Tabata protocol generated so much interest. The HIIT group increased their VO2max to a greater extent than the steady-state group despite exercising for only a fraction of the time.
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What Tabata Didn’t Do
Before you read on, I should point out two things.
Firstly, Tabata’s research looked at the effect of HIIT on VO2 max and anaerobic capacity.
VO2max is a way of measuring aerobic power. It tells you how much oxygen your body can use at a maximal level of effort and is usually expressed in milliliters of oxygen per kilogram of bodyweight per minute.
He DID NOT look at the impact of Tabata training on weight loss, excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC), fat burning, resting metabolism, muscle growth or any of the other things that some people are claiming.
All he did was compare one form of interval training with steady-state cardiovascular exercise over a period of six weeks.
In addition, most of the gains in aerobic power came in the first three weeks of the study, before gradually tapering off.
“Interestingly, the running coach Arthur Lydiard made this observation half a century ago,” writes Lyle McDonald. “After months of base training, he found that only three weeks of interval work were necessary to sharpen his athletes. More than that was neither necessary nor desirable.”
HIIT isn’t going to keep on improving your VO2max indefinitely. Do too much of it and there’s a good chance your performance will gradually get worse rather than better.
Most athletes divide their training into “seasons” where they work at different levels of intensity depending on their proximity to a competition, rather than working at maximum effort all of the time.
In fact, many athletes will spend most of their training time working at a relatively low intensity [2]. They’re certainly not pushing their heart rates to the limit and going flat out in every workout.
Second, the Tabata training protocol described in the original study involves “all out” sprinting on a stationary bike.
I’m not talking about a level of intensity that gets you a little out of breath — this type of training is brutally hard.
“If you feel OK afterwards you’ve not done it properly” says Tabata. “The first three repetitions will feel easy but the last two will feel impossibly hard. In the original plan the aim was to get to eight, but some [subjects] only lasted six or seven.”
Mountain climbers, kettlebell swings, squat jumps, lunges, push-ups or burpees with a 20-second work interval and 10 seconds of rest are not the same thing, and have not been shown to deliver faster gains in VO2max than steady-state cardio [6, 7].
What about fat loss?
If you want to lose fat, you need a calorie deficit. As long as your diet is in order, any form of exercise is going to make some kind of contribution, however small, to that deficit.
But despite their popularity, the use of Tabata intervals to burn fat does have its limitations.
The main problem is that no matter how hard you push yourself, there’s a limit to the number of calories you can burn in a HIIT workout lasting four minutes.
It’s true that many of the calories burned will come after the workout has finished. That’s because high intensity exercise has a much bigger afterburn effect than moderate-intensity activity.
However, the size of the post-exercise calorie burn is dependent on both exercise intensity (how hard you work) and exercise duration (how long you work for) [3, 4].
The effect that a short bout of exercise, no matter how high your heart rate might get, has on your metabolism just isn’t as great as some people seem to think [5].
Is the Tabata Workout Good For Weight Loss?
How does the Tabata workout stack up in the weight loss department? As it turns out, not very well.
In one study, a team of Brazilian researchers report that Tabata intervals, performed three times a week for four months, have only a “trivial effect” on body fat [6].
They compared three different training schedules:
- HIIT workout (eight high intensity 20-second treadmill sprints interspersed by 10 seconds of passive recovery)
- 30 minutes of steady-state cardio
- Circuit of four calisthenic exercises
Here’s what the calisthenic workout routine looked like:
Burpees
Mountain Climbers
Squat Thrusters
Jumping Jacks
Each exercise was done for 20 seconds, with 10 seconds of rest between each one. The sequence of four exercises was performed twice. The whole HIIT workout looked like this:
ROUND 1
Burpees: 20 seconds
Rest: 10 seconds
Mountain Climbers: 20 seconds
Rest: 10 seconds
Squat Thrusters: 20 seconds
Rest: 10 seconds
Jumping Jacks: 20 seconds
Rest: 10 seconds
ROUND 2
Burpees: 20 seconds
Rest: 10 seconds
Mountain Climbers: 20 seconds
Rest: 10 seconds
Squat Thrusters: 20 seconds
Rest: 10 seconds
Jumping Jacks: 20 seconds
Rest: 10 seconds
The result?
All three training programs delivered similar gains in VO2max. However, there was no meaningful change in body fat or muscle mass over the course of the study,
In fact, the only group to lose any weight was the steady-state cardio group.
To quote the researchers directly:
“Significant, but trivial, reductions were observed in the sum of skinfolds and in the percentage of body fat, both with no difference between protocols.”
A 2012 study, published by a team of researchers from Canada’s Kingston University, generated much the same set of results [7].
A series of calisthenic exercises (burpees, jumping jacks, mountain climbers, or squat thrusters), performed four times a week for a month, didn’t lead to any weight being lost.
Final Thoughts
HIIT workouts are both a highly effective and time-efficient way to boost your VO2max and anaerobic capacity.
Just like any form of exercise, HIIT will also make some kind of contribution to fat loss.
However, many of the claims being made about the effectiveness of Tabata workouts for weight loss go way beyond what was shown in the original study.
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See Also
- Muscle Evo – a training program for people who want to build muscle and get strong while minimizing fat gain.
- MX4 – a joint-friendly training program for gaining muscle as fast as humanly possible.
- Gutless – a simple, straightforward, science-backed nutrition system for getting rid of fat.