The Easiest And Most Effective Cardio System
I used to be one of those people, in the gym, on the treadmill, forcing myself to not stop till the machine displayed stats that I then felt made my workout a ‘good’ one. Isn’t this what we are told we have to do to lose fat and get lean? I eventually ended up getting sick of it. In fact, it started making me dread going to the gym. It was the most boring 60 minutes of my day. I knew I had to make a change because I couldn’t keep going this way. I’ve tried various styles of programming cardio into my routine, ranging from High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) sessions to low intensity sessions on the equipment in the gym. All had their pros and cons, but nothing felt right. Until I found the perfect solution.
Before we begin, let me link you to my post Cardio For Fat Loss. If you want to know why I believe that HIIT sessions are not the solution for everybody and whether or not you can lose fat without any cardio at all, check it out.
Till I found something better, I had settled down for Low Intensity Steady State cardio in the gym after eliminating the other styles. To make it a little more tolerable, I planned on multitasking to make better use of my time. If you’re interested in multitasking and killing boredom while performing cardio at the gym, check out The Only Cardio Hack You’ll Ever Need. But this was just temporary. I was still in search of the perfect solution. Until one day when I showed up to the gym and literally all the equipment was taken. Instead of waiting there, I just left for a walk. To my surprise, I realized that I never had seriously considered walking as my primary form of cardio. I mean, you couldn’t get a 6 pack by just walking and not running, right? Or could you?
From that day onwards, I started walking as my primary form of cardio. It was by far the most suitable form of cardio for me, but something was missing. I missed multitasking like the way I did in the gym and I felt that listening to music for 60 minutes straight just got boring after a few days. And that’s when, after almost 2 years of searching for the perfect solution, I finally found it.
Long Walks + Podcasts
If you don’t agree that this is one of the most effortless ways to achieve the results you want, continue reading and you’ll understand why I choose this over the countless forms of cardio out there.
Why Walking?
Now I’m not going to bore you with the normal benefits of walking that you can find everywhere. You know, like better memory and cognitive function, a longer life, lower stress, improved mood and more. These by itself are a good enough reason for you to start walking more whether you wish to lose weight or not. Instead, I’m going to give you reasons as to why I feel walking is superior to other forms of cardio, given that weight loss is your goal.
Doesn’t spike hunger as much
Walking doesn’t cause a spike in hunger unlike other forms of cardio. This is by far the most important characteristic in my opinion. Think about it, if running on the treadmill and burning 300 calories results in you eating 500 calories after your workout because of the hunger spike, did the cardio work in or against your favor? This is one of the things people fail to consider when they make claims that training with higher intensity forms of cardio is superior to lower intensity forms like walking for the purpose of weight loss. Again, this depends on person to person and there might be some of you out there who feel no spike in hunger performing cardio at a moderate to higher intensity. But if you’re anyone like me and you do, this is the one reason you should give walking a shot. Remember, anything that helps you maintain a calorie deficit will be effective for fat loss. I can go out for a 60 minute walk and still not have as much of a spike in hunger when compared to a higher intensity session.
The lower intensity helps with active recovery
As much as we would love to sit at home doing nothing on our rest days, some form of exercise could be beneficial, not only from the standpoint creating a calorie deficit but also from that of enhancing recovery. Walking is one of the best forms of active recovery because of its low impact nature. Moreover, active recovery may help fatigue levels dissipate while burning a few extra calories, making it a win-win situation for you.
Easier to program
In fact, this is the ‘easiest’ form of cardio to program. The low impact nature of walking allows you to perform it the night before, or evening after, a big lift without decreasing performance or recovery to the extent a more extreme form of cardio would.
Flexibility through the day
The way I incorporated walking into my routine was by setting a step goal. This allowed me to be flexible with my cardio as long as I achieved my step goal by the end of the day. There were some days where I was more active and achieved the goal without even realizing and there were others where I was very sedentary and had to consciously try to hit my step goal. Either way, knowing that I have a step goal made me be more active throughout the day.
This also highlights the importance of NEAT, a.k.a. Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis. Simply put, NEAT is the amount of energy we spend on activities other than eating, sleeping and training. When you calculate the number of calories you should be consuming, the effect of NEAT is factored in. NEAT is one of the reasons (along with exercise and the Thermic Effect of Food (TEF)) why your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE) is higher than your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR)(illustrated below). What does this have anything to do with walking, you may wonder?
I’ll try to explain this with an example. On days I performed higher intensity exercise, I noticed that I ended up being lazier throughout the rest of the day. Now, while this exercise session might have burned more calories compared to a lower intensity session, it resulted in me having a lower NEAT for the rest of the day. On the other hand, if I had just gone for a walk instead, I wouldn’t have felt as tired and would end up with a higher NEAT, hence a higher TDEE. Keeping the number of calories consumed in both cases as constant, it is very much possible that I am in a bigger deficit in the second scenario. While the body doesn’t work as simply as this, I hope it gives you a better idea of why considering your total daily activity as a big picture is important.
Get some fresh air
Another reason which I felt has to be included in this list. Especially now, when most of our work is being done inside rooms sitting on the desk, going out to walk is a great change in ambiance. There’s just something about walking out in the open that can’t be replicated in the gym. While this last point is more of a personal choice than anything else, I still think that it is one that should be considered.
Why Podcasts?
You may agree with the walking but not with the podcasts. While it is completely up to you to decide how you spend your time, I believe that you should give podcasts at least one shot before dismissing the idea completely. I’ll list down a few reasons that can convince you to start listening to podcasts while getting your cardio in.
Learn about a topic
Besides being entertaining, podcasts are an excellent source of education. There are various categories to select from and everyone can find something that interests them. If you aren’t sure about what to listen to, just look up for things related to your field of work and you’ll be surprised to find the amount of good quality content present online. For me, personally, podcasts have been just as informative and educational as youtube, but the ability to consume content on the go definitely gives them the upper hand.
Listen to podcasts anywhere
As I mentioned, one of the best parts of podcasts is that you can listen to them anywhere. If you aren’t able to finish an episode while performing your cardio, you can get back into it at any time later. Unlike TV series, podcast content can be consumed while doing simple tasks like performing chores, commuting, cooking, etc.
Avoid boredom for free
We all love listening to good music but after a certain point, the same songs stop sounding good anymore. We often tend to get bored of songs when we listen to them over and over again. Podcasts can give you a break from your regular music and they are not as repetitive as playing your playlist on loop thanks to the vast library of content available to us. Moreover, podcasts are generally free, hence making them one of the best sources of content when compared to paid sources like audiobooks.
Conclusion
Hopefully, after reading this post, you are convinced to give walking a shot. Make sure you listen to podcasts and make those brain-gains as well. A simple step goal of 10,000 steps a day is a good place to start. You will start seeing the difference in your health and weight once you start taking walking seriously. It is one of the most underrated tools for fat loss and is one, I believe, should be taken advantage of. That said, any form of cardio you like to perform will be the ‘perfect’ solution for you as it will allow you to be consistent in creating a calorie deficit. Let me know down below about the form of cardio you prefer to perform!
