HIIT + Caffeine = Increase in Post Exercise Fat Metabolisation

HIIT and Caffeine have both been highly advocated for fat loss by professionals and personal trainers all over the world. Now, a recent study (Gerber. 2010) by provides clinical evidence for the effectiveness of the combination of both.

Gerber et al. had six participants complete two exercise trials consisting of 30 min of HIIT (20s cycling at 150% VO2max with 40s rest), followed by a time to exhaustion (TTE) test at 150% VO2max with prior ingestion of 5 mg/kg of either caffeine or placebo (Caltrate) in randomised order and found:

During recovery from TTE, plasma glycerol was significantly increased with caffeine (p<0.05), with a similar trend for plasma FFA (p=0.1). VO2 was significantly elevated in the caffeine trial compared to placebo after both HIIT and TTE exercise bouts (p<0.05), and plasma uric acid was significantly higher after caffeine following TTE (p<0.05).

So, after all, "bro-science" sometimes is not far away from "pro-science" and some advice you frequently hear in the gym is actually worth following.