If you dread spin class more than anything but keep going back because it burns body fat, we have some great news for you. According to a personal trainer to the stars, walking may burn more body fat than high-intensity cardio!
Our new favorite celebrity trainer Harley Pasternak - who works on famous bodies like Kim Kardashian, Ariana Grande and Lady Gaga - says that the best way to burn fat stores is by walking. Not running. Not high-intensity interval training. Just walking. And we’re all about that!
Pasternak says high-intensity cardio burns more calories a minute than walking does, but a higher percentage of those calories come from non-fat sources. But low-intensity cardio - like prolonged walking - goes right to fat stores for energy to burn. And we aren’t scientists, but that sounds totally legit to us!
The fitness guru’s theory comes from studying the exercise and food habits of the healthiest countries in the world and comparing them to the U.S. Here, we only walk about 4,100 steps a day, but they’re walking over 10,000 steps a day in the healthiest countries. So to see results, we need to aim for between 10,000 and 14,000 daily steps.
But don’t tear up your gym membership card just yet. More intense exercise is good for more than burning fat. Moderate- to high-intensity workouts can raise metabolic rates, explains Jaclyn London, Nutrition Director at “Good Housekeeping.” And she reminds us that the best workout is the one you’ll keep doing regularly. So if that’s running, keep doing that. But we’re happy to walk our way to fat burning over here!
Source: Scary Mommy