You are running t-o-o-o-o s-l-o-o-o-w
20 minutes fast is better than hour slow. Intensity and duration are inversely proportional. That means if you want to run a long time, you have to run slower than you would if you ran a shorter distance. If you want to burn fat, and look hot, sexy and lean then the game we are playing is intensity.
Cardio for fat loss = cardio with intensity
Intensity is important for two reasons. First, most women stuck at the last stubborn 7 pounds of fat are doing lots, and lots, and lots, and lots of cardio. Whatever your favorite mode of cardio is, it’s pretty safe to say that your body has adapted to the intensity and duration that you’ve been doing for the last six months. We need to change it up. Switching out duration, and switching in intensity, will be a pretty major shock to your system.
I train a ton of marathon and half marathon runners. They all come to me with the same problem – they’ve been running and running and running, and somehow they’ve started to get fatter. When they first started running, they lost tons of fat. But after a year or two, it seems to all be coming back, and it doesn’t matter how much they run. Their bodies have developed an efficiency to running. In terms of their sport, this is really great. If they are more efficient, they can run faster and farther with less effort. Being more efficient also means that it’s going to have less and less of an effect on their fat loss. If all I do is put them on a rowing machine or make them swim in a pool, their cardio workouts quadruple in effectiveness. Usually I can’t make marathon runners shorten the duration of their runs, because they need them for their sport. But if your main concern is weight loss, lets cut your time down and jack up the intensity.
Tupac’s Brother, EPOC
Higher intensity also has some other benefits. E.P.O.C. Stands for Exercise Post Oxygen Consumption. EPOC is also know as the “after burn”. It’s that warm feeling you have after a workout, where you continue to burn calories even after you’ve stopped working out. It looks like that old Seinfeld episode where George finishes his workout, and he’s still sweating in the meeting. He’s still burning calories. It’s a nice bonus, and it’s a bonus that only comes with intensity.
By Josh Hillis
Author of How To Lose The Stubborn Seven Pounds: Take Your Body from Good to Rockstar.
National Academy of Sports Medicine Certified Personal Trainer (NASM-CPT) and Performance Enhancement Specialist (NASM-PES)
Russian Kettlebell Challenge Certified Instructor (RKC) and Combat Applications Specialist (RKC/CAS)
© Joshua Hillis 2006
I don’t mean to contradict this, but I’ve never in my life met a long distance runner with the problem that they are “starting to get fat”.
I trained for 1/2 and full marathons several summers back in my twenties, and my problem was no matter how much I ate I could just barely keep any weight on. I’m 6′ tall and I dropped below 140 at one point, no doubt due to my 16 mile weekend runs and mid week 12 milers.
I lost so much weight my eyes started to get a hollow look to them as I burned the fat off of my face. My girlfriend said I was starting to look like a concentration camp victim. All the while I was eating 4 or 5 meals a day, sometimes 1/2 a pizza in one sitting.
Mostly I run into women, mid thirties, who are totally skinny fat. They’re not big girls – they’re usually skinny. But they are also 30% bodyfat at least. And 30% bodyfat isn’t lean. They get smaller, but they still feel fat.
The “concentration camp victim” look usually isn’t lean either. You have to lose a lot of muscle to get that look. Show me someone who wants to look like a concentration camp victim.
If you can hold on to muscle, you can actually look hot.
More more more cardio = skinnier skinnier skinner. It doesn’t equal looking hotter.
Oh, I’m not saying that running is going to give you a look that is hot. This is particularly true if you are a guy. Long distance running is a specialized activity, after all.
I’m just saying that, in my experience, anyone busting their ass through 30 or more miles a week is going to have REALLY low percentage body fat.
The runners you speak of, that are still holding onto a lot of body fat, probably are not running as far as they are saying, or they are running at a low level of intensity.
I have a pretty strong feeling that you are right about the intensity being missing.
I guess the question I have with this (and I’m a man, maybe this doesn’t apply, but…)
Currently, I’m doing 15-20 minutes on the treadmill after the weights, but I am doing fast walking on max incline. I’m exercising between 60-80% of my heart rate depending on the day and how I feel. Am I not doing it intensely enough? (I do this workout 5x a week – it’s pretty much the 5 factor fitness style).
I have a polar watch and they discuss the ideal heart rate for fat loss to be ~%60 of your max heart rate? Your article flies in the face of that logic.
Which is right?
I’ve always puzzled over the 60% max heart rate for fat burning. If that were true, why is it that athletes who constantly perform at 80% (and higher) of their max heart rate are among the leanest humans on earth? Sprinters, swimmers and mountain climbers – not only have I never seen a fat one, I’ve rarely seen one who wasn’t significantly ripped (early pics of Chris Sharma on rock faces when he was 14 years old – do humans get anymore ripped than that?). And, I see plenty of people like me – who run 18 to 22 miles per week and still have 19% body fat and have to run in the Clydesdale division.
I’ve been training for my first major summit, and I’ve come to realize in the past 2 weeks that I need to rethink my entire approach. I’m now moving towards Crossfit style workouts – so that when I’m at 15,000 feet I’m not preening about my bodyfat percentage as I pass out from a racing heartrate. Rock on Josh, rock on.
Ok… I am currently about 192 lbs, mostly muscle, just have to get rid of the love handles. I’ve started doing cardio using the stairmaster for a few days, and the treadmill on other days. I keep it switched up so my body doesnt adapt. I eat six times per day and have been counting my calories. How much cardio is too much? I did cardio 7 times this week, and weight trained 4 times. I just want to get my abs which for some reason is incredibly hard for me. My lowest weight since i’ve been training is 187, and even then I didnt have any abs but looked really skinny. Any suggestions???
Any suggestions on how many calories I should be eating?? Protien, Carbs, Fats!!! I’ve read several articles for calculating my caloric input, but I’m always up for more suggestions. I’ve been working out for 8 years and yet to see my abs. It is so frustrating because I eat really good and exercise all of the time. Maybe it’s just not in my genetics to have them??
You want to lose fat, gain speed, and power? Do hillsprints – I mean sprints uphill. If you’re a beginner just do 15mins of hillsprints. But if you really want a “hardcore” workout try the Tabata principle. Say 8 sets of 10 reps of 20 seconds sprints with 10 seconds rest interval. When and if you’re able to do this. try it out on hills.
Give me a reply if you gain speed, endurance, and strength. Like Josh said, intensity is the key.
I know it works because it helped me a lot with my sport – Muay Thai – it’s one of those workouts that helped me get to the top.
Got no hills? Then try stair running or stair sprints, and stair hopping too.
Greg, if you can’t see your abs, you are either not eating the quality you think you are –
OR
You are consuming quality food, but just too much of it. What ever your average caloric intake is right now, subtract 100 calories per day. Try this for four weeks. If you don’t see significant improvement, subtract another 100 calories.
Rayzor – I totally love hill sprints. They’re the best ever.
Nice tips and advice on this area, will share this page with my subscribers.
I am a 20 yr old female and i recently started working out. I work out for 30 mins every other day on the eliptical mashine and i do feel the burn for at least an hour after the workouts. is this too much? also, should i change my cardio workout evry 3 or 6 wks? should i change it when i stop feeling the afterburn? thanks!
I was sent this article, and it’s really helpful.
I have a question though. At the moment, I’ve been working out for an hour or so hours 6x a week on the elliptical (at the advice of the “gymrats” LJ community, I’m starting some weight training as well). So far this has been working for me, as boring as it is.
Should I wait until I plateau before I start increasing the intensity and shortening my workout time?
My understanding is that the “fat burning zone” concept, i.e. 60% MHR, has some validity. At this range of heart rates, a higher percentage of the calories consumed are derived from fat oxidation. However, if you exercise at a higher intensity, you burn more total calories. Though you end up burning a lower percentage of fat, you still breakdown a larger amount, as a reflection of the greater number of calories consumed.
Some say they’ve never met a marathon-runner who’s (getting) fat–that’s because they’ve never met a marathon-runner. Most marathonners are not lean, fit looking: their either major ectomorphs (thin, spindly, weird-looking) or heavy, bulky…but rarely ever do you see marathon-runners that look like Jessica Alba or Beckham. It’s because they didn’t look like that to start with. Marathonning doesn’t necessarily change your body fat…and most runners eat LOTS of calories. There was a documentary on PBS recently following the progress of 10 (or so) regular people who decided to undertake the Boston marathon. Most were very unfit when they started and after the alotted 40 weeks of training, their aerobic conditioning was excellent (high-level athlete) level. However, only one actually lost weight over the course of the training, and it’s because she was taking weight loss exercise classes and modifying her diet.
Hi Josh,
Every year I take part in a 10k running race – I’m not a serious runner by any stretch, I just do this one event each summer because it’s fun and it’s a goal I can work to. How can I apply your principles of high intensity while putting in enough hours and miles to get a good time in the race?
I am a typical “last 7lbs” customer, in good shape but wanting to look awesome, and in the last few months I’ve made progress through swapping most of my running for a kettlebell program.
I want to do the race, and beat my record from last year (53 mins), I want further strength gains and I also want to continue losing body fat.
Are these three aims in conflict with each other? How do I balance them?
Found your blog looking for resources on weight loss online, very constructive resource, thank you and wishing you all the best. Abe,
Have to agree with you on this one. I don’t pretend to understand the science behind it but I know from personal experience that hard and fast rules for shifting fat pockets.
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If you have high blood pressure should you be doing high intensity workouts?? thanks in advanced.