Millions of people everyday get up out of bed to go for a run. I would say maybe half of these people do it for health reasons, which is a great thing to do. We all know the benefits of cardiovascular exercise and how it can benefit the body and prevent disease. However, the other half do it for reasons such as losing weight, or to get "toned" for the beach. This is a big no no in my book. There are many reasons to this and we are going to explore these right now.
I sometimes like to view people and friends, especially in groups. I like observing how people interact with one another, I guess you can say I'm somewhat a weekend sociologist. Anyhow, what I am trying to say is often if you look at people in groups, they tend to follow the herd, like sheep, even if some of these people know that it's the wrong decision. They still won't talk up. This is the analogy I am going to make when it comes to people slaving away on the cardio equipment desperately trying to lose weight.
Let me put it this way, are you burning calories, yes! However, over time, when it comes to steady state cardio, your body adapts and you burn less and less calories. It becomes easy for your body, that's why you can do it for so long. There are some exceptions to the rule though like if you are extremely over weight and just need to move, you are performing active recovery because you are really sore or just trying to mix things up.
But remember the first point I made, the more and more you do this type of exercise, the more and more it is going to become easier on your body. You will burn less calories over time, thus cutting into your fat loss results.
Another point I would like to bring up is if you look at any physiology text books, the entire process that your body has to go through in order to start breaking down fat to use for fuel can take up to 20 minutes. I remember my physiology teacher stressing this point a thousand times.
And the last point I want to bring up is that once you stop performing this type of exercise, metabolism stops or levels off very sharply. You will no longer be burning calories for an extended period of time, unlike high intensity type of exercise.
These are just some of the reasons that I feel steady state cardio is over rated when it comes to weight loss. You do not need it and can get faster results without doing it. Remember the sheep analogy, just because everyone is doing it doesn't mean you have to.
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