I went from 255-260 down to 210-215. That's about 5 lbs a week, which isn't bad at all considering I went from "drinking Mt Dew, eating bullshit" to "100% healthy foods, no soda, lots of water."
This was about 3 years ago when I was 21 and I kept it off (and even more) until earlier this year when I was sick for months on end w/ my throat infections/sleep apnea. I didn't gain it ALL back, but some because I stopped working out while maintaining my 'active' BMR caloric intake when I wasn't doing a whole lot.
Trust me, I didn't lose muscle. I lost tons of fat and had amazing definition in most areas afterwards. Like I said, I had consistent (although slow) gains in my lifting - which can't happen if you're losing muscle.
I know all about the low level workings of nutrition and working out (ie lipolysis and lipogenesis vs how it's stored/burned, etc) - still, mixing cardio 5 days a week (the HIIT in the AM) as well as weight lifting 3 days a week made me shed the lbs like nothing.
It really doesn't take long to lose lots of body fat if you're eating properly. Check out
http://www.johnstonefitness.com. I found out my routine was pretty much identical to his - but if you look at his progress pics, he too lost decent amounts of body fat in just 3 months.
I personally didn't lose AS much because I was also gaining in my lifts, but the results were still great.
I've been back on my routine for 3 weeks now and have lost over 10 lbs. I'm not focusing as much on gains in lifting since I'm cutting, but I keep the lifting weights consistent and don't have any problems whatsoever in performting the actions.
Maybe it's what I eat, but I calculate my BMR and right off the bat cut 500 cals off, so that alone will make me lost 1 lb of fat a week - 20% of what I eat are EFA's (olive oil, salmon), 40% is carbs, all low GI (oatmeal, 100% whole what bread, brown rice, etc) with the occasional apple/banana/strawberry, and 40% in protein (chicken, tuna, shrimp, etc). I eat 6 small meals a day (every 2 hrs).
One day a week I eat whatever I want.
That's really it - and 5 days a week, Mon - Fri I do the HIIT for 30 mins in the AM. Right after I drink whey protein and eat a banana. Every other day do lifting at the gym (which I actually haven't been doin as much). Even still, I get very good results.
Guess you'd have to have seen it for yourself to believe - but I heard the same types of things all along "you'll be losing muscle" or "you shouldn't work out that much".. and none of it was true.
It was nothing but beneficial and I'm amazed and happy w/ the results.
[edit]
And I think some portions of those articles you linked to even support HIIT - the majority of the time you're walking at low intensity levels (65%).. then you kick it up to 90%, but before your body gets used to that level, you stop and lower the intensity till you get back to 65%. Your body doesn't stay in the anaerobic state for very long at all.