Why Walking Beats HIIT for Fat Loss After 40

[00:00:00] Strategic Walking is very sustainable, it's low stress, and it's highly effective for midlife. It's one of the fastest ways for you to shift your nervous system. I always promote stress management because that helps to create an environment for fat loss. Walking lowers your sympathetic drive, which is that fight or flight. It increases the parasympathetic tone, which is that rest and recovery.

[00:00:26] So it puts you in a place where you're feeling much more comfortable.

[00:00:52] If you're doing HIIT bootcamps or intense cardio and still struggling to lose weight after 40, this episode is for you. Because the problem isn't that you're not working hard enough. The problem is that your body has changed and the strategy hasn't. So today we're talking about why walking, not HIIT, is often the missing fat loss tool in midlife. So let's dive in. And I know that this is going to be relevant for a lot of people. A lot of people struggle to lose weight, especially after 40. So let's talk about this with you, Doug.

[00:01:22] But how are you? How's everything? Good. Everything's good. This is going to be an interesting episode because, you know, when I wasn't in midlife, I used to poo-poo walking and that sort of thing. And I still do this somewhat. I'm not all the way on the other side, but my mindset and my thoughts had to be reframed. So this will be good. This will be good. I want to talk to them about how to use it and what the benefits of it are.

[00:01:52] So let's dive in. So, Doug, why does high-intensity training stop delivering results after 40? Good question. It's not that high-intensity interval training is bad, right? It's just after 40 and in midlife, it's no longer neutral, you know? So high-intensity training boosts or increases your cortisol levels.

[00:02:17] And when you're in 20 or 30, you can manage that much better because you get that spike, right? And then it clears. But in midlife, it doesn't work like that. You get that spike and then it just kind of lingers on, you know? So it creates a cortisol problem. And your recovery capacity declines as you age. And I'm experiencing this right now. Just had the second hip replacement.

[00:02:42] That recovery has been much slower than the first one, which was just four years ago. So as you age, your ability to recover declines, right? Hormone buffering is lower, right? Sleep is much more fragile. And stress tolerance is reduced. And so when people respond to like stalled fat loss by doing more HIIT training, they're just making the problem worse. You know, they're kind of doubling down on a bad hand, you know?

[00:03:12] And so they're creating somewhat of a mismatch, you know? Because stress on a body, or excuse me, more stress on a body that's already stressed is not going to help you get results. It just doesn't happen. More effort doesn't equal more fat loss, especially in midlife. Absolutely. And I think HIIT isn't particularly bad.

[00:03:39] It just seems like it might be mismatched for a stressed midlife metabolism. Yeah, it's not bad at all in and of itself, right? So we got to put that in context because I do HIIT training, right? And so the key is I don't do it very often. I make sure my recovery is solid. And I make sure that my cortisol or stress levels are under control, right?

[00:04:05] Which means walking, meditating, and making sure I got enough food, right? So if you do those things, sprinkling in that HIIT is a good thing. It's a good thing. But most people are walking around midlife stressed, you know? And so stress metabolism really, you know, it's not good to pile HIIT on top of that. Absolutely. And this is what I was saying a little bit earlier, what you touched on.

[00:04:33] Walking used to have a different thought process around it. But what makes walking different now or in midlife? Because it sends a completely different signal to your body, right? HIIT says danger, stress, emergency, you know? So your body's doing all these chemical reactions are going on in order to respond to it, right? But walking says we're safe, everything's steady.

[00:05:00] It's totally good to recover, you know? So those are two different messages to the body. And the body's going to respond to them, you know, differently. You know, physiologically, walking lowers your cortisol, right? And HIIT does just the opposite. It improves your insulin sensitivity. It supports fat oxidation. That's a, you know, a training or a health coach word.

[00:05:27] But just fat burning or the ability to use fat for energy. And it enhances recovery instead of, like, competing with it. So it makes it easier for you to recover. And, you know, that matters because I've said this before. Fat loss requires safety, right? Your body does not release fat when it feels like it's threatened, right? And that's what happens when you do those HIIT workouts, you know?

[00:05:54] So, you know, I've said it oftentimes. You just need to create an environment for fat loss. And walking can help create that environment. It really can. Absolutely. And then people hear, for example, zone two. And we've talked about that a little bit before. And I feel like it's something that people are talking about more so now than before as well. But people hear zone two but might not really know what it means. So what does zone two actually mean? Cool.

[00:06:23] So they've got these five cardiovascular zones, right? Zone one, I would say, is a warm-up, right? It's a warm-up. It's casual. There's minimal effort. That's the dog walkers, right? When you're walking, your dog is very, very, very casual, not much effort. Zone five, you're busting your ass, right? You're doing sprints. That's the HIIT training, you know? So that's the—you're gasping for air, right?

[00:06:51] So that's the extremes, one and five, right? Zone two is where we have some low to moderate intensity type work, right? You mean low to moderate, meaning 60% to 70% of your heart rate. Right? And when you exercise or move in this zone, your body uses fat for energy, right? So that's its energy source.

[00:07:14] And so what you want to do is you want to be able to do these type of activities because they will use fat to actually—or stored fat for energy, right? So—and they do a couple other things. I mean, in terms of your mitochondria, they become more efficient. And the mitochondria, if you can imagine, they're like the little engines in your cell. So they start to become much more efficient.

[00:07:43] Metabolic flexibility improves. And what that means is your body now can move between carbohydrates for energy and fat for energy much easier, right? And that's the way it's supposed to be able to function, right? But now in the way that we work out and the way that people eat, your body is constantly using the carbs for energy and not using stored fat for it, you know?

[00:08:07] But just for a real simple rule, if you can like sing while you're doing something or while you're walking or an activity, you're in zone one, right? Right? That's zone two. You should be able to have a conversation. It shouldn't be completely easy, right? But you should be able to have a conversation but not sing, right? Okay. That makes sense. And then if you can't breathe and you're out of breath, then you're in zone five.

[00:08:37] You're not burning fat. You're using carbs for energy, which is fine because we all eat them, right? And so if we eat them, we got to use them for something. And, you know, that's a great place to, you know, use them as well as everything else that we do in our daily living. Absolutely. And then speaking about walking, how does it help with blood sugar specifically? Yeah. So that's walking. Walking has got a lot of capabilities.

[00:09:07] But for me, the superpower is what it does for blood sugar. And that's how I use walking. I'm not someone who walks every day and we'll talk about the, you know, the recommended amount. But I strategically walk after I eat. Okay. And that's where it helps with the blood sugar. Just a 10 to 20 minute walk after your meals. It's going to lower any glucose spikes from that meal that you just ate.

[00:09:34] It's going to reduce insulin demand, which is key because when insulin comes out, fat loss is done. Right. And it's going to improve your overall like glucose performance, your ability to handle it. And for me, I've got some gut issues. So walking after I eat, it helps with my digestion, you know, so it's a winner for balancing that blood sugar.

[00:09:58] And when you control your blood sugar, lower insulin, easier fat loss, and you don't get those crashes and those cravings. You know, so that's how I like to use it. And it doesn't take long, which is why this is how I use it. I don't have enough time to be on a 60 minute walk most days. It's just not realistic for my lifestyle.

[00:10:22] But I can, I can damn sure get up and walk after a meal for 10 to 20 minutes. And the benefit of that walking is huge. It's huge. You know, it's especially powerful for midlife women, right? People with insulin resistance, especially those, you know, those individuals and just anyone who's got that like stubborn belly fat around the waist.

[00:10:49] You know, those are, those are individuals who would definitely benefit from, you know, a 10 to 20 minute walk after a meal because it basically turns your meal into metabolism support. Walking does versus turning your meal into fat storage because you're going to sit on the couch and you're not going to move.

[00:11:13] And you might've ate too many calories to start with, and you're not going to get around to burning that until sometime the next day. Absolutely. And the fact that you said, you know, 20 minutes, for example, that's so quick. 20 minutes, you're going to go through a few videos on your phone and not even notice 20 minutes goes by. You can listen to a podcast in 20 minutes. I was about to say they could turn us on. They could turn us on. Let this be the motivation on your walk for that. Absolutely. Absolutely.

[00:11:41] And it doesn't, you know, 20 minutes, like, you know, like we try to keep these short, but you can get, you know, you can see us in 20 minutes and one day you could be done. It's also great for stress relief. You know, it's, it's always good to be outside too. So that's how, that's how I really like zone in on the walking. Yeah. And it really does really make you feel better. If you're not feeling well or you're tired or anything, just moving for 20 minutes and taking a walk, it really does make such a big difference. Yep.

[00:12:11] And we've talked about the importance of muscle on the show numerous times, right? But my favorite will kind of worry. Exactly. Some people kind of worry that walking will cause muscle loss. So is that true? Is there any truth to that? No, that not even close that, that sounds like something you'd hear on Instagram. Right, right. You need to lift the weight or you're going to lose all your muscle. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:12:38] Like, like you lose muscle by sarcopenia, which is just an aging process of muscle, muscle loss, right? You lose muscle by not trying to combat sarcopenia, which is lifting weights and eating properly, the proper amount of protein.

[00:12:58] You can lose muscle by being under chronic stress, by having poor sleep habits, by under eating or over training, right? All of those contribute to muscle loss, not walking. You know, walking doesn't cause muscle loss. I mean, in fact, I would argue that it kind of preserves your muscle because it helps to reduce inflammation, control your cortisol.

[00:13:28] It helps with recovery and it also supports that whole nutrient delivery. Like I said, when I walk after a meal, it helps with the digestion process. You know, now you can't just walk by itself, you know, because then sarcopenia is going to get you. So when you combine it with strength training, the walking becomes super protective of muscle, super protective.

[00:13:55] So we kind of alluded to this earlier without really getting into it, actually. But why is it that walking is so powerful for stress? Yeah, because it's one of the fastest ways for you to shift your nervous system. And so, you know, from my book and I always promote stress management with all of my clients. We make sure we do it because that helps to create an environment for fat loss.

[00:14:24] Well, walking helps improve your stress, right? It lowers your sympathetic drive, which is that fight or flight, right? So it kind of helps get that under control. It increases the parasympathetic tone, which is that rest and recovery. So it puts you in a place where you're feeling much more comfortable, right? So it kind of combats the stress process. It helps improve your sleep quality. It helps lower your cortisol.

[00:14:55] I mean, it's just very positive towards managing your stress, right? And most of us don't know how to manage our stress. We're not meditating. We're at these high stress levels consistently under stress. And so walking just shifts that whole thing around. And that's important, you know, because when your body has stress under control, then it has permission for fat loss.

[00:15:24] If that's your goal. If that's your goal. You know, so it's much more than just burning calories, you know, and actually it's not very good at burning calories. But it does help burn stress or manage stress, which ultimately will help you to unlock fat loss. Absolutely. And like you said, it might not burn fat or you could use walking in different ways, right?

[00:15:50] It might be used in a different way than people think about walking. So how do you think people should actually use walking? Keep it simple, man. Don't overcomplicate this, right? I mean, it's pretty simple. You want to be in that sweet spot, which is 30 to 60 minutes on most days. See, that's what the research says.

[00:16:15] You know, people come into my clinic and I ask them what they do for exercise and they say walking. Well, it's not on most days. It's on some days. And it's not always 30 to 60 minutes. And sometimes it involves too much conversation or an animal as in walking the dog, right? So you want to be 30 to 60 minutes in that zone too, right?

[00:16:41] It should be comfortable, but you should be able to have a conversation but not sing, right? Outdoors is always preferred over the treadmill. Always preferred. And post-meal walks when you can. For me, it's not a when you can. I like walking after a meal. I've gotten kind of comfortable and used to it. I don't want to go out for a 60-minute walk. So I'll just do it after meals. I can't get it there all the time, but when I can, I do, right? Right?

[00:17:12] We can lose the obsession with tracking. Put your darn device down. You don't have to do your 10,000 steps. And you don't have to put on your little walking vest. Like, this is not a performance event. That's not what we're talking about, you know? And especially with the 10,000 steps. People get all caught up on the 10,000 steps.

[00:17:36] And then just recently, I mean, and we talked about that being a Japanese pedometer marketing campaign. But just recently, some Australia researchers looked at that. And really the sweet spot for you pedometer 10,000 step people is 7,000 steps. So at 7,000 steps, you're going to get all the health benefits and the longevity benefits. You can go 10,000 and you'll get more.

[00:18:05] But it drops off in terms of how much more you're going to get for the time that you're going to put in. Right? So just keep it simple. You know, set a time. Get out there. Do your walking. Doesn't matter if you got a vest on or not. Right? Try to do it after a meal. Try to do it outside. And just remember, this isn't the performance area.

[00:18:30] You know, if you want to do that, then do that in the gym safely or do that when you're doing your HIIT training or some other sort of training. You know, but with the walking, consistency beats the intensity all the time. You want zone two. You want long time. Absolutely. Don't overcomplicate it. It's simple. Walking is simple. Keep it simple. Yeah. You know what? All it takes is just a pair of shoes and you just get out the front door.

[00:19:00] Just move. Just like go outside. Right. Right. So that should put it very high, you know, on the ability to get it done. Mm-hmm. Right. It's not like you got to go to the gym, drive 20 minutes, change your clothes, deal with some people, get, you know, fight for equipment. Like, you don't have to do any of that. Just put your shoes on and get outside. Absolutely. So it's very simple. Absolutely.

[00:19:25] And then talking about how people should use walking, how do you think that people should reframe walking mentally? Because there's so many different thoughts about it. Yeah. Well, I mean, I had to reframe my thoughts about it. Right? So, yeah. So I'm part of that. I'm part of that culture, I guess, that needed to be reframed. But, you know, walking isn't for lazy people. Right? It's not a warm-up, which a lot of people use it as a warm-up. It's not something you do when you can't train.

[00:19:54] It's supposed to be something you do in addition to training. You know, but walking strategic is very sustainable. It's low stress. And it's highly effective. For midlife. You know, so those are, you have to think about that in terms of your thought process and kind of reframing your thoughts. Because it compounds over time. You can't burn out.

[00:20:22] You know, very few people get injured from walking. And it's great for burning fat. You know, for people who want results and don't want to kind of like jack up their nervous system. You know, because you got people just stepping on the gas every single day. And that's not conducive, you know, to fat loss. But walking can be very strategic. It's sustainable.

[00:20:51] It's low stress. It should be a component of your longevity or health or weight loss program. Absolutely. It deserves a seat at the table. A small seat. A small seat. A small seat, you know, but it deserves, it deserves a little something. A seat, a seat's important, big or small. Yep. And then speaking about walking based fat loss, because we touched on it a little bit earlier.

[00:21:19] Who benefits most from walking based fat loss? Everyone. Everyone. I mean, it's not, it's not a, I mean, some groups do better than others, especially effective for perimenopause or menopausal women. Because it kind of combats some of the hormonal shifts. But it's good for everyone. Everyone. If you're a high stress professional, it's got your name on it. If you're a poor sleeper, right?

[00:21:45] Because the poor sleeper, your cortisol is going to raise, some hormones are going to be out of whack. You don't want to go hit the hit workout. You might just be better off served just walking. Anyone who's got insulin resistance, because it brings it right down and you should be doing it right after a meal. Anyone who is stuck, right? With their fat loss, despite the high efforts, right? So you're doing all this stuff and it's not working, but walking is not part of your routine.

[00:22:16] Then, you know, you need to do that. I've had to pull people off of the workouts and get them to actually start walking to actually start to see that they were way, their cortisol levels were just way too high for them to lose weight. And so for them to get results, we had to pull back the workouts and start walking. So if you fit in any of those categories, then, you know, walking might be good for you.

[00:22:41] Because when your body's inflamed, when it's resistant or when it's exhausted, it's not going to lose any weight. And walking can kind of help offset that. No, that's interesting too, because I think I have talked, we talked about this a long time ago, but I was struggling with losing weight and I was doing so much HIIT training, HIIT, HIIT, HIIT, HIIT. Five days a week. And I remember you saying, uh, you should not be doing that. Yeah. It's just too much. Yeah. It's too much. And that's our mindset.

[00:23:11] Mm-hmm. You know, that's our mindset. Step on that gas. Step on the gas. Oh, I only lost three quarters of a pound. Let me just work out a little harder, you know? And, um, it kind of defeats, you know, your efforts to do that. But, you know, put the walking in there. Like I said, I've, I've, I've come a long way in terms of, uh, appreciating its value. Um, I still don't call it exercise though. I call it movement.

[00:23:38] Um, but I make sure that I get that movement in strategically throughout my day. I never have a pedometer. Pedometer. I'm never going to buy one. And I'm still getting the benefit of it without that. So, you know, just be, be strategic of it. If you have the time, do the 30 to 60 minutes. If you don't have the time, then, you know, fit it in after meals or fit it in where you can. Mm-hmm. Absolutely. No.

[00:24:08] And I always love how you make everything seem so digestible and quick. Like you can find 20 minutes after you eat dinner to walk around even outside is best. But, you know, if you can, you just move around, walk around. Yeah. Go on the walk. You can. But I think outside is great too. It also definitely helps with stress. And like you said, it, it makes you feel better. It really does. It does. And if it's a nice day, you're going to get some vitamin D with it, you know, and it feels good to be outdoors. It feels good to be outdoors.

[00:24:37] But to your point, you can do it indoors too. I mean, it's raining outside today. I'm going to have dinner. Well, I'm not just going to go sit on the couch. I'm just going to get all my little chores and ready for tomorrow and just keep moving around up and down the steps and, you know, get it all done 20 minutes after dinner. Absolutely. For sure.

[00:24:57] And if anyone listening feels like this, if you've been told that like fat loss, if you've been told that fat loss requires suffering, it does not. And walking works because it works with your biology and not against it. So you don't need more intensity. You don't need more alignment. You also, like you said, don't need more things and gadgets and all this stuff. Walking is simple. And this was another great episode, Doug.

[00:25:22] Thank you so much for always giving us great information and making it, like I said, super digestible and something that seems obtainable. Everyone can find ways to do that and walk 20 minutes a day. For sure. If not more. But again, this was a great episode. And this is Midlife Unleashed where smarter movement beats harder workouts. See you next time. And make sure that you follow and subscribe and share the show. And I can't wait to talk to you again soon, Doug. All right. Sounds good.