Lose fat fast—should I walk or run? Long distance or short duration? Which will burn fat the best?
Let me answer your questions on the best exercise in order to keep you lean and healthy.
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Hey, wellness warriors! I’m Dr. Nick Zyrowski and I started my holistic health practice in order to
help you take control of your health naturally because true health only comes naturally.
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Growing up I played soccer, football. I went on after that to play college hockey
and I’ve been an avid gym goer pretty much my entire adult life. And still to this day,
I like to go and participate in athletic events like spartan races, for instance.
And so, when it comes to exercise overall, I keep a really open mind because I like to
participate in many different styles. Now I find value in participating in long distance running,
hit training or just going for a nice long walk.
Now each one of these has benefits. But let’s see which one is going to be the best for weight loss.
According to the Mayo Clinic, we need to get about 150 minutes of cardiovascular exercise
in each week. This means that we need to get about 30 minutes a day for five days a week.
Now when we look at cardiovascular exercise,
it doesn’t mean that we’re just going for a slow stroll outside, right/ We don’t want
to mistake that with just getting some steps in. But it means that we’re actually going for
at least a brisk walk where we’re getting our heartrate up to around 120 beats per minute.
This type of exercise can be sustained for a long period of time and is referred to as
aerobic exercise. Some other examples of this style of exercise would be
swimming, cycling, jogging or even maybe going to a Zumba class.
Now this style of training offers many benefits that people prefer over high intensity training
in many cases. The first major benefit that it offers is that it actually will
burn fat as a total percentage of calories over stored sugar. So, it’s great for burning fat.
Another great benefit that it offers is that it helps keep cortisol low. And if you’re somebody
that has a stressed out physiology because you’re living a stressed out lifestyle or maybe you’re
even suffering from a health condition, then this type of exercise would be a good fit for you.
I know a girl who’s in her twenties and she was suffering from a health condition.
Now in the meantime, she wanted to lose weight. So, she was doing a lot of long distance running.
Frustrated because she couldn’t lose weight, she just kept pushing the exercise.
I convinced her to take a step back from all the excessive running that she was doing
and start doing more walking. And she kind of thought I was a little bit crazy
because she’s like, “There’s no way that this could work.” But in fact,
she actually started losing weight and was able to keep it off much better.
Now coincidentally enough, my wife told me today that she took two days off exercising and she was
blown away because she lost three pounds by taking time off. I hear these stories tie and time again.
So, if you’re somebody who’s fitting into this category--like I said, a lot of physiological
stress—then this is going to be a good fit for you. We have to remember that everybody’s body is
different and will react differently to different styles of exercise. We just have to try them.
Another benefit that’s pretty important that you get from aerobic exercise
is that it’s much easier to control your calorie intake with it. And
the reason for that is because when you’re doing this style of exercise,
you’re burning fat for energy. And as a result, you don’t get hit with these huge hunger cravings.
And this is why people in the fitness industry who maintain a great physique, and a lot of
muscle mass, and they really dial in their calories, tend to prefer aerobic training over
high intensity training that would cause them to have massive hunger cravings throughout the day.
Now let’s talk about another style of training that I also participate in
and this is referred to as anaerobic training. Now this can be anything that is
done at a very high intensity. So, this would be high intensity interval training.
This could be sprints. This is going to be doing any form of exercise that’s done at
an intense level that gets your heart rate up to about 150 beats per minute or more
and is done in a short duration of time simply because it cannot be sustained for long periods.
Now anaerobic training will have you burning a lot of calories due to the high demand that your body
will require for energy and fast energy at that. And what makes this style of training so unique
is that during the training session, you’ll burn stored sugar for energy versus fat.
Now the good news is because you actually are burning all that stored sugar in the
body during the training session, it opens up the possibility for you to burn fat for
the next 24-48 hours after you’re done with the exercise. And this is why this style of
training is so powerful for anyone who is suffering from insulin resistance.
I’ll often have patients who are suffering with this issue go and do a five minute hit workout
in the morning and a five minute hit workout at night. So, that way it’s low stress, but
also just burns through the sugar stores and helps keep their sugar levels low.
But due to the high demand for every, cortisol is raised during anaerobic training. The good news
is that unlike long distance running, it’s raised for just a short period of time. But it can still
pose a problem for those who are undergoing a lot of stress physiologically in their body.
And because most people are trying to lose fat when they exercise,
it’s very important to remember that this style of training can leave you wildly hungry which then
can lead to overeating which would negate all the effort that you put in so far.
One of the things I like to do—and I’ve talked about this before—in order to combat cravings and
fuel your body properly, I like to use essential amino acids post exercise. It helps in a huge way.
I can’t push it enough. What I’ll do is I’ll put a link in the description
below to the amino acids that I use. So, with all that said, what is one to do?.
Well, the first thing is that it’s really important to realize that in order to lose weight,
you have to do something every day. The key concept to understand here when it comes to
exercise is that everyone is in a different place and everybody has different goals.
When I first start working with patients who are overweight, or maybe they’re suffering
from a health condition, or maybe they’ve never even exercised before, a 30 minute walk a day
is more than enough. And as they progress in their weight loss and they progress
in their health transformation, I’ll have them increase the intensity a little bit.
Maybe it’ll be go for a one minute jog and then a one minute walk. And then, repeat
that cycle for 10 minutes in total. It’s always important to look at the current situation and
look at your current goals. And make sure you’re basing your exercise off of that.
And it’s also important as I said before, to make sure that we’re not adding stress on top
of physiological stress. For those whose main goal is to gain muscle, I’d recommend that you
just focus on weight training and you get in about 10,000 steps per day in order to support fat loss.
Now for all the runners out there, you’re probably wondering, “What about long distance running?” Now
personally I love long distance running because it just feels like such a good mental reset.
For you runners out there, you know what I’m talking about.
There’s nothing else like it. But the problem with that long distance running
is that it raises cortisol in the body, puts a lot of stress on the body.
And, you know, whether it’s the joints or the physiology, it’s pretty hard on the system.
So, when it comes to long distance running, I keep it to a minimum. I typically like to get one in a
week and then the rest of the week I’ll do hit training. I’ll do weight training. And then,
of course, make sure you’re getting your rest in there as well because it’s so important for
your nervous system. And it’s so important to actually progress in weight loss, and progress
in lifting heavier weights, and progress
in running a further distance in a shorter period of time. That rest is incredibly powerful.
Now I Mentioned how incredibly beneficial it was to use high intensity interval training
if you have insulin resistance. To learn more about that, watch this video here.
Not only did they decrease insulin levels, but the other thing that happened there is
the blood sugar went down. And they also were able to lose weight and they actually
specifically mentioned that they had fat loss.