Longer Is Not Always Better

For some reason people believe that longer workouts will burn more calories and in turn speed up fat loss.  At LIFT I commonly run into this mindset with new clients.  People think the longer they run or workout the better off they are, the truth of the matter is the REAL calorie burn comes from the workout recovery not from the actual workout. 

Here is an example of what I’m talking about.  A client comes in and runs on the treadmill for 30 minutes at an 8 min mile pace.  During that time period they may burn 450 total calories (just an estimate).  During the next 24 hours the body will begin the recovery process and at the end of the 24 hours they will have burned a total 1800 calories.  The same client could perform 30 minutes of interval strength training and burn 350 calories during the 30 minutes but burns a total of 2200 calories at the end of a 24 hour recovery period.  I am just using estimates to get my point across but this is what recent research has shown.

The increased calorie burn occurs due to the elevated metabolism and other physiological factors that are occurring to repair the body. 

Many times people’s mindset is that they must run themselves to death or stay in the gym for so long that they are too sore to exercise the next day.  After about 45 minutes of strenuous exercise a person begins doing more damage to the body than it can handle and thus puts themselves in a state of injury rather than recovery.   What is the point of that?  Overtraining is just going to lead to more injuries and poor results.  The point of training is to get better and see results not kill yourself and have sit out for two days. 

Bottom line, you should mix it up, I’m not saying to not run but do it in intervals or only perform long distance interchangeably with strength training.  You do not need to injure yourself or spend all day in the gym to achieve your goals. 

More time does not equal more results!!!    Get out and be active!