There are no quick fixes for the ‘holiday body’
Q What is the most effective cardio to lose weight quickly?
A At the start of the year, many people turn wellness and fitness into new year’s resolutions, convinced that they will turn over a new leaf. In the last two months of the year, they are frantically trying to find quick fixes to make up for the fact that they can’t even find the leaf, never mind flip it.
The Water Cooler is certainly not accusing you of scrambling for a quick fix as you must be a responsible and reasonable person because you read Business Day. However, you are reading this column so it’s touch and go.
Quick fixes are in our national nature. Eskom has been flogging a horse that died about 13 years ago and spends its days and nights implementing various stages of a quick fix to prevent total grid collapse.
Our governing party spends years worrying about internal power dynamics and when it hits the final straight just before elections, it pulls out all the stops to woo an electorate that is increasingly disengaged with the ballot. The smaller parties? Opportunism is the political equivalent of fat-loss pills — it gets you excited, but doesn’t change a darn thing.
Have you prepared lunches before attending a work event decorated with croissants and custard tarts? Do you use the red or yellow drive-through because it’s convenient? No doubt, you, like most of us, take the easy option and then when it’s time to disrobe on a public beach, we implement body load-shedding with immediate effect.
Run. This is widely accepted as the most effective way to burn calories. Yes, some will beg to differ, but we’re talking averages.
The internet is full of these averages. Healthline says that an average 80kg person can burn up to 900-odd calories in an hour. To be honest, using our non-scientific reality check-o-metre, that sounds too good to be true.
But then again there is a difference between running and jogging, and higher intensity running is taxing. Intervals, or sprints, or for those with forgiving knees, hill sprints, have proven time and again to shed fat almost as fast as Twitter sheds trends. Time to visit the Westcliff Steps.
Verywellfit writes that if someone wants to burn 500 calories, they should run five miles. That’s 8km. This is because they estimate you burn 100 calories per mile (or 1.6km).
This, using our non-scientific experiential fact-checker (that is: personal experience), is probably on the low side.
However, as an avid reader of the Water Cooler you know that weight loss is not just about “calories burnt” or calories in and calories out. There is a cascade of hormonal pathways that direct how our metabolisms hold onto, or shed, fat. Here, diet is very important, as is age, gender and genetics. Beyond this, exercise triggers all sorts of metabolic pathways within our cells beyond just “burning calories”.
WEIGHT LOSS
In my experience, highintensity interval exercise, against the clock, using the full body has been the most efficient way to fast-track weight loss. But this is my body. Running is right up there and when sprints or intervals are included, it has been a golden tool to keep the scale friendly.
If you can’t run, then cycling — even on a stationary bike — is good. Walking — if you do a lot of it and at a decent pace — is probably the most accessible and efficient way to add exercise into your life. If that’s still too much for your joints, swimming is a fantastic option to add to your regimen and by no means inferior.
Ultimately, the only “cardio” you will stick to is exercise that you enjoy. Whether that’s tennis, hiking or long peaceful jogs (that’s if you don’t run in Bryanston or Fourways), it doesn’t matter. What matters is that you do it a few times a week, if you can. You’ve developed bad habits, it’s just as easy to develop good habits.
ULTIMATELY, THE ONLY ‘CARDIO’ YOU WILL STICK TO IS EXERCISE THAT YOU ENJOY. WHETHER THAT ’ S TENNIS, HIKING OR JOGS