if it's useful internally, then I can't think of a better form of branding than tidying up the formatting, slapping a logo on the bottom and knowing that it's going to be downloaded and referred to by the people most likely to require your specialised services. For that matter I was planning on tidying up and releasing the ones I created for myself to learn the framework at some point, and I have no desire whatsoever to sell my services as a programmer (nor should any sane person want to hire me).
I have to wonder what the motivation for releasing it as a 10MB(!) pdf was though.
You know the sort. I'm currently de-flashing a website where google can only see the <title> tag. Everything else is an image or a flash, and even the flash when torn apart is mostly pictures of text and individually placed characters… but it remains true to the designer's vision. A pity no one ever sees it because it is unsearchable.
(It also would have been nice if the flash artiste had delivered the source files, but then I suppose he was afraid someone would sully his masterpiece.)
Compared to exercise, it takes much less effort to accomplish weight loss through eating less. Doing both certainly doesn't hurt, but there's more work involved in burning 200 calories than in skipping that extra cookie to start with.
Like most people you have waaaay overestimated the amount of calories burned during exercise [1]. To burn 200 cals in 9-12 minutes you will need to be doing all out sprints for that entire time and that might not even get you there.
I'm in pretty good shape and did a real 1000 calories workout one time with a trainer friend of mine (he has a body bug which does an okay job of tracking calories). It took an hour of high intensity exercise and I nearly puked a few times during the workout. That's how hard it was.
I don't think I'm that far off. According to the calorie counter on the exercise machines, that's what I do while warming up. (I do 1 minute full intensity, 30 second rest intervals, which prevents the puking.)
Your own link suggests 12 minutes of vigorous biking will burn 200 cals as well as 10 minutes of boxing.
The calorie counters on the exercise machines are generally not very good. They are like the scales that attempt to show you your BF%, directionally correct but number given is not very good.
You hit on the rest of the equation though, specifically about what people think is high intensity. Vigorous biking means going all out for 12 full minutes likely with the resistance turned up pretty high. When it comes to elliptical machines they are notoriously bad at making people think they do all this 'work' when in reality it's momentum unless they turn the machines resistance way up. Treadmills do some of this by 'carrying' people along, but they are not nearly as bad as ellipticals.
Boxing is very good, but really doing boxing for 10 minutes with a heavy bag is not easy. Notice how long the rounds are in a real boxing match and how tired the fighters are. Reminds me of the only other time I've puked while exercising was doing 2 minute on/1 minute off BJJ rounds.
You should actually swap your warmup method around [3]. If you can do a minute full intensity with only 30 seconds rest then that would lead me to believe the intensity isn't as high as you think. Instead do 30 seconds full intensity with 90 seconds rest[1]. Personally, I have to do this on a track b/c it scares me to even try to run at a true full speed on a treadmill (I had a 5.0sec 40yd at one point in my life hah!). 60 second splits with 180 second rest is also popular. I can't find it now [2], but the original HIIT research found the 1:3 sprint:non-sprint ratio as a key factor.
I know what vigorous biking means. I don't see the point of doing anything else while you are at the gym, unless you are just there to enjoy the sight of yoga girls. And I don't think it's implausible that an elliptical on high intensity (which works both upper and lower body) can burn something comparable to a bike.
As for my interval times, it corresponds to 1 minute rounds, 30 seconds rest. I could jack up the intensity more if I wanted to do 30/90, but in the ring that would correspond to 30 seconds dishing it out, 30 seconds getting killed.
By the way, could you explain the rationale behind [3]?
Ah, well you didn't mention you were training for something sport specific :) The study I can't seem to find referenced most effective fat loss with the 1:3 ratio. When I trained BJJ/MMA a lot we did everything for round time which makes total sense from a sport stand point.
The rational with 3 is simple. Some of the recent writings from people like Alywn Cosgrove and Lou Shuler (2 guys who I think know what they are talking about) have talked about how useless the standard treadmill warmup is for people. Instead they advocate people focus on dynamic stretching and a focused warmup prior to weight lifting. So if I'm benching that day my warmup might consist of shoulder mobility stretching/pre-hab and progressively heavier bench weight until I'm ready to do my work sets. Running on the treadmill would have done nothing to prepare my chest and in particular my shoulders for what was about to happen.
If you love running on the treadmill before working out then go for it, but make sure to also warmup whatever you're working on that day from a weight standpoint. Also, since most people are time constrained that 10 minutes on the treadmill before doing anything else could be better used.
When it comes to doing full HIIT, I simply don't have the energy to do it properly and then lift or vice versa. For example, when I dead lifted this week I did 365x5, 405x5, 455x2, 510x1 after my active warm up. I followed that with SLDLs, pull throughs and then some plyo work (high jumps, long jumps, etc...). There is no way I could do any sort of HIIT with the proper intensity after that considering I had a hard time walking :)
On days when there is less lower body work I can sometimes squeeze HIIT in at the end of the workout depending on how spent I am. Generally I'll just mix in 1/6 mile sprints in between various upper body sets.
My main cardio comes from doing various other activities like hiking, snowboarding, basketball, etc...
Not sure if you'll see this, but a great message board (sorta like HN for fitness) is forums.jpfitness.com. A great site with good, knowledgable people.
Yeah, my post mainly applies if your primary goal is weight loss. Skipping exercise entirely will ultimately make you look emaciated, but its best (easier, safer) to ramp up the exercise after you're already near a healthy weight.
There's a saying that goes, "Abs are made in the kitchen, NOT the gym." I can't stress enough how much portion control (eating less) plays an important in your dieting. Don't believe me? Look at the serving size on the nutrition facts label of some food product you plan on eating, and then look at how many calories are in one serving. It's very easy to "double-up" on serving sizes (oh yah, it feels soo good) and then before you know it, what was supposed to be only 1500 calories just turned into 3000 calories for the day. Do this every day during every meal, and I can bet you sure as hell won't be losing any weight. At best, you'll be maintaining the weight if you're going to the gym regularly (3-5 times a week).
By the way... I see people all too often misunderstand "cheat days". On a cheat day, you don't get to pig out on junk food. You get to pig out on good, healthy food (i.e., double-up on serving sizes), or have just a serving of less-than healthy food (such as pizza, etc).
Is it simply the name brand promotion that it generates?