RUNNING IS MAKING YOU FAT
Whaaaaaaa??? Allow me to explain.
The idea that the best way to lose weight, stay lean, and be healthy is to jump up and down and run for 80 miles and sweat until you drown, is complete garbage. This idea that cardio is king is sold everywhere you look - by magazines, influencers, home fitness companies, and more. This messaging could not be wronger (<---like this grammar).
Always consider our biology, which is based on hundreds of thousands of years of evolution. For 99% of the evolution of our bodies, food was scarce. Very scarce. Our genius biological makeup figured out how to keep us alive against all odds - store fat! If the body feels it is burning a lot of calories, it will modify so that it uses less calories and stores more fat (calories). One thing it does if you do tons of cardio is pares down muscle to save on energy expenditure - muscle is an expensive tissue that uses a lot of calories. Smart! Another thing it does is triggers your body to store more fat reserves so that - you guessed it - we don’t starve to death!
The good news is our bodies will eventually adapt to our new sedentary and plentiful-food-source way of living in society. Bad news is, it’s going to take at least several thousand years. Damnit!
So for now, how do we lose fat and maintain leanness? We gain muscle! Since muscle is so “expensive” and our body fat is our “savings account,” the more muscle we have, the more fat (or “money”) we burn!
To achieve this, we must exercise our bodies using various forms of resistance - bands, weights, our own body weight - and do this in a safe, repetitive, and constantly more challenging manner. Safe means learning good form and the best weight/exercises for you. Repetitive means you have to do it more than once! Always more challenging because your body is always adapting to the stimulus you give it. If you do the same thing for too long, your body adapts and ceases to change. You’ve got to be careful, consistent and persistent!
Now, running is NOT bad! In fact it can be quite good for you - when done in moderation and with good form (most people run poorly, causing knee/ankle/low back/etc. problems). It also can be quite meditative and can reduce stress. It’s also important to do some cardio since your heart is a muscle too. Just don’t do it as your only means of burning calories. 20-30 minutes a few days a week is plenty enough. So that’s more good news! You don’t have to run on a boring treadmill for an hour until you sweat so much that your partner slips on a puddle and ends up in the hospital (huh? Just go with it). So STOP ALL THE CARDIO and get yourself some weights, hire a trainer to teach you and make a great program, stick to it, and reap all the incredible, long lasting benefits of being stronger, leaner, moving better and being the badass that you are.
*TIP: Go for walks! This is also cardio and is especially good right after a meal. At least 10 minutes after each meal is an excellent way to aid digestion and burn calories while taking in nature - you’re killing so many birds, you could open a KFC! (Bad example, those aren’t real birds).*
Message me with any questions or for more information on how you can stay fit and healthy!
HAPPY (RESISTANCE) TRAINING! Zach