Two blogs ago I wrote about how a Nike commercial perpetuated one of the world's biggest exercise myths. That exercise myth was that jogging or walking (long steady state aerobic exercise) was the same as short duration, intense, anaerobic exercise. (like hand to hand combat, running for your life etc).
Aerobic exercise (like jogging and walking) does indeed burn fat but when you burn fat at a high rate the body simply sees it as a command to replenish what fat was lost and to produce extra fat for the next jog or walk.
If an exercise burns fat, the body is never going to gamble and run out of fat in mid exercise session. Logical ideas like "the more I jog/walk, the more fat I will lose", just don't apply here. The body has it's own way of helping you survive and it's answer to losing fat via aerobic exercise is to simply pile on more.
The video below is testament to this. Nutritional psychologist Marc David was given a client who jogged 7 miles per day during the week and 15 miles per day on the weekend. She could have also been walking 7 miles per day. The same outcome was guaranteed.
She ate only 1400 calories per day and avoided fat. She did this because she wanted to lose 25lbs. After a full year of jogging 10 miles per day and eating next to nothing, she had not lost one pound.
This clients' family doctor referred her to Marc David because the doctor actually believed she was lying. Her family doctor believed there was no way she could be exercising that much, eating that little and not losing weight. Just another example of a conventional doctor seeing what they believe and not believing what they see. Doctors don't learn anything about exercise or diet in med school so it is silly for a patient to ask a doctor about weight loss in the first place.
Marc David knew different and understood that it was very likely this client was indeed exercising that much and eating that little. Marc David knew that jogging, walking and low fat diets prime the body for fat gain. Marc told the client to stop jogging immediately and to add good fats to her diet. The client lost 15lbs in the first 30 days after changing her routine. This client now understood that the over exercise myth, the calorie myth and the low fat myth were what was keeping her fat. Click here to see the interview with Marc.
The body never wants the owner of the body to run out of fat when they are jogging or walking, so the body goes into fat production and fat conservation mode. It is that simple.
The body's genetic adaptions to jogging and walking are 1) decreases in muscle mass (because muscle eats fat and the body needs fat for the jogging/walking) 2) increases in fat conservation hormones (because the body wants to make one molecule of fat last as long as possible during the jog/walk) 3) a lower metabolic rate (so that fat is conserved during the times when the jogger/walker is resting) and 4) increases in fat production hormones. (so the body builds more fat from the same or lesser amounts of food because fat is needed during the jog/walk)
Think of the body like a Geni, granting every wish asked of it. Aerobic exercises (like jogging and walking) do burn fat but again the body hears the command that the owner of the body needs fat in order to jog or walk. The scientists who discovered that jogging burns fat were 100% correct but they packed up the experiment too soon. If they would have studied the joggers longer they would have discovered that a jogger's body starts becoming a fat production and fat conservation powerhouse.
The body's genetic adaptation of over producing fat, in response to jogging or walking, can unfortunately translate into unhealthy exercise addictions. The body's fat storing hormones always want to stay one step ahead of the jogger or walker. This basically shows up as weight loss plateaus, increases in weight or increases in fatty content. If the body is really good at storing fat those effects can show up when a jogger stops jogging or a walker stops walking for only one day. This can get the jogger or walker out on the road sooner than they should. This is how a leisurely jog or walk, 2 days per week for 30 minutes, can escalate to 1-2 hour jogs or walks/6-7 days per week. The answers to combat this are described in Marc David's interview above. This UK trainer explains the same concept.
In order to learn the proper format for cardio exercise please read Dr. Al Sears' Pace Program or Craig Ballantyne's Turbulence Training. Let the results guide you.
Bottom line is that jogging just makes you a better jogger and walking just makes you a better walker. Jogging and walking are not good for fat loss so do not use them for fat loss. Jogging and walking actually add fat storing hormones to the body and they will win out over everything else the person is doing.
Keep jogging if you do it for pleasure but most of my clients do it because they want to lose fat.
Don't be afraid to try something new when the old way is not working. Don't go back to what doesn't work. It doesn't make any sense.
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