New Walking Method 2x Better Than Running? (Tested)

[00:02] 30 secondond workout can never compete with 40 minutes. And if you do too much cardio, then you're going to lose muscle. But are these actually true? In this video, I'm using the world's most accurate calorie and fat burn tracker

[00:14] and talking to the top sports [music] scientists to bust the 10 biggest cardio myths. Starting with our first myth. Walking isn't hard enough to improve your fitness. To find out, my editor Andy is walking 30 minutes a day for the

[00:27] next 2 weeks. But first, we need his baseline. to see if walking improves Andy's [music] fitness. The first one is a V2 max test. You basically push your body as hard and as long as possible until

[00:43] you physically can't go anymore. >> Keep going, Andy. Keep going. Push. >> Many scientists consider this score to be one of the strongest predictors of how fit you are and even how long you'll live. Now, the highest scores ever

[00:56] recorded, they come from elite cyclists, cross-country skiers, and Olympic level triathletes. Andy is not one of those people. He averages less than 3,000 steps a day, giving him a day one V2 max score of 34, which puts him below

[01:13] average for his age. But we also want to measure if his heart improves under normal, less intense conditions, which is why we're also running what's called a submaximal test. But Andy isn't our only guinea pig. I've recruited multiple

[01:27] subjects with completely different body types and fitness levels to see whether same way. So, while Andy's working on our first myth, we still have nine more myths to bust, including our next one. Does more sweat equal more fat burn? And

[01:42] to help me with this myth, we have Alicia, who's biking in a very cold gym right now. And using our metabolic cart, we're going to be able to track every calorie burned and also her fat burn. And once her 10 minutes are up, she's

[01:55] to return back to baseline while we [music] turn up the heat. Then we're going to find out if she actually burns more calories and fat cycling for the same time at the same pace, only this time in a hot, high sweat environment.

[02:09] calories in the hotter environment, dripping >> Yeah, I [music] think so. because I'll be sweating a lot more for sure. >> And we're going to go exact same speed with the same resistance. And I want you

[02:22] with the same resistance. And I want you to maintain 37. environment, Alicia is already breaking a sweat just after 6 minutes. [music]

[02:34] But here is the surprising part. Fitter people, they actually start sweating sooner. Their bodies get better at cooling itself. It activates sweating can sustain harder [music] efforts without overheating.

[02:46] pace up. >> But all that extra sweat would only improve her fat loss if it's also causing her body to burn more calories. causing her body to burn more calories. >> 3 2 1 Keep going.

[03:02] heat, Alicia literally had sweat dripping on the floor. Was this harder? >> Last time you said what, 7.5? What was the difficulty this time? >> Nine. [laughter] Do you think uh you burned a lot more

[03:14] >> Yeah. >> Yeah, for sure. Definitely. Well, we are about to find out. Okay, so in the cool workout, Alicia burned 131 calories at an average heart rate of 150 [music] beats per minute. But in the heat, even

[03:28] though her heart rate was actually higher the whole time, she burned just 120 calories. How? Well, even though her heart was pumping harder to cool her body, the workout now felt much harder. And even though I tried my best to keep

[03:43] performance dipped [music] more often, explaining the lower calorie burn. And when we also compared how much fat she burned in each workout, the percentages were quite similar. So all that extra sweat was basically just for show. Later

[03:57] on, I'm going to use a mass to test how different workouts affect how much fat you burn. But first, can [music] you eat back whatever calories you burn from exercise? You've probably seen the invites to a run club that ends with

[04:09] donuts, ice cream, or even beers. And the assumption most people make is that as long as you work out hard first, you can eat back the calories you just burned off. And to test this, I prepared a table of snacks for Andy and Alicia.

[04:22] give you each a plate, and I want you to fill it up with however much food you think you just burned off. I like how they're just like so hesitant about what they're choosing though.

[04:36] >> Andy is making a good choice with the orange. I felt like he didn't want me to judge him, so he's trying to balance the plate nicely. People are really, really they're [music] consuming. They usually underestimate it by at least 20 to 50%.

[04:51] me. >> I think I'll take this. And the second thing is that people think they burn way more calories on their workouts than they actually do. Usually they guess two to three times more calorie burn from

[05:04] than they've actually burned. And it helps explain why even if you've added some exercise to your routine that you may not be seeing the results you want. plates using the Built with Science app meal scanner, their total calories added

[05:19] meal scanner, their total calories added up to So your plate 535 calories. >> Oh god. your plate. 526 calories. [laughter] >> Oh, wait. I didn't see there's another one. I thought it was just one. You

[05:33] >> you're trying to hide it. Now, to be fair, Andy and Alicia had no idea how many calories they'd actually burned during their workouts. So, here is the their weight if I [music] had them eat

[05:46] back that exact amount of calories? Would their weight go up, down, or stay think it would just balance out, but here's the problem. If you're dieting, then after cardio, your body tends to compensate by burning fewer calories for

[06:01] called NEAt. [music] Things like fidgeting, walking around, and movements you probably aren't even aware of. This is one reason why research consistently shows that when people try losing weight through cardio alone, they end up losing

[06:15] only 20 to 50% of what you'd predict based on the calorie burn from their workouts. [music] So, if you burn 500 calories from cardio and then eat back 500 calories thinking you're breaking even, [music] you're probably going to

[06:27] be disappointed and you're better off looking at cardio as a health benefit instead of an excuse to load up on food. But if you still like the idea of getting calorie data after every workout, then how much can you actually

[06:39] Now, many people assume these devices are completely useless because they just estimate your calories based on your weight, age, and heart rate. But to test collecting data with our Metabella cart, which has an accuracy rate above 98%,

[06:54] but we'll also be using a normal Apple Watch. So, at the end, we'll be able to compare our results from every workout to find out just how reliable these Now, go ahead and lock in your prediction now, and I'll even give you a

[07:08] hint. After measuring our first two exercises, we are currently sitting at a exercises, we are currently sitting at a respectable 84% accuracy. But it's still early and we have six more myths left to test, including, do you actually need

[07:21] 10,000 steps a day to get the most health benefits? You see, our obsession with getting 10,000 steps per day actually dates back to the 1960s when a Japanese step counter was released called the Mampo meter with Mampo

[07:35] translating to 10,000 steps. However, there was no actual science behind this number. The marketing team just thought it sounded catchy, and they were right. The 10,000 step slogan blew up until it eventually became synonymous with the

[07:49] at the new research backing this claim up, at first glance, everything does analysis from earlier this year, compared to people averaging less than 2,000 steps a day, getting 10,000 steps reduced all-c cause mortality,

[08:05] cardiovascular disease, [music] type 2 diabetes, and even dementia. But here's where it gets really interesting. So, the people in these studies, they didn't actually need 10,000 steps to see these improvements. Most of the health

[08:17] benefits actually started to level off once people were hitting a daily average of just 7,000 steps, which for many people is a more realistic target. But you big benefits if you're older or just not very fit, I'm actually running our

[08:32] V2 max experiment with a second subject. My friend Brandon, who lifts weights and plays sports, [music] but just doesn't walk much outside of that. So, while Andy is trying to improve on his V2 max score of 34, Brandon will be following

[08:45] the same walking protocol to see if it improves his above [music] average score of 43. To help them do that, they're going to be doing what just might be the most effective way to walk, the Japanese walking method. And start.

[09:03] walking at a pace that's fast enough to get your heart rate up to 70% of its max. Then you follow it up with three minutes of normal walking to get your heart [music] rate back down. And you repeat that for a total of 30 minutes.

[09:16] Researchers in Japan compared this walking protocol in one group to just walking over 8,000 steps a day in another group. After 6 months, the group who was assigned interval walking outperformed the 8,000 steps group in

[09:29] every single category, including an almost 10% jump in aerobic capacity. Now, in just two weeks, we'll be retesting Andy and Brandon to see if this interval walking actually improves their results. But in the meantime,

[09:42] these brisk walking sessions may be good for more than just conditioning. Many people claim exercising at this low intensity, also known as zone 2 training, is a sweet spot for fat loss. >> It comes to your aerobic level of

[09:55] your fat burning zone is zone two. >> If you have the goal of fat loss and you're not doing zone 2 training, then you need to be doing zone two. So, to test this myth, here's what I'm doing. Two 10-minute workouts. The first, a

[10:08] zone 2 incline walk at around 60% of my max heart rate to get my body in the fat burning zone. Then, I'm turning up the speed for a higher intensity [music] run to find out if my body actually will burn less fat. And the results, it might

[10:22] surprise you. You can clearly see that my body relies far more on fats when I'm doing the zone 2 incline walking compared to when I'm running. the actual fat percentage is when I was doing the incline walking 75% fat burn when I was

[10:35] doing the running 15% fat burn. So when they say zone two training is actually the best exercise for fat burn that's actually true. However, there is a big difference between fat burn and actual fat loss. Let me explain. Your body is

[10:50] smart. If you burn more fats during your workout, your body compensates by relying more on carbs the rest of the day. Whereas if you burn more carbs, the opposite happens. So, while zone 2 is great for health and endurance, as it

[11:03] energy and recovering between workouts, when it comes to losing body fat, what matters most isn't the heart rate zone of your workout. It's how many total which should make it quite obvious that running is [music] way more effective

[11:18] for fat loss than walking. Right? To test this claim, I sent Dennis out with our calorie tracker and asked him to walk for a mile, take a break, and then walk for a mile, take a break, and then run [music] for a mile.

[11:31] definitions about the word run, but while his slow jog was still burning more calories per minute than his walking, when I tallied up the total results, I was not expecting both workouts to burn almost the exact same

[11:44] amount of calories, around 150 each. But when I reviewed Dennis's footage, things started to make sense. So, I reverse engineered his pace based on how long each mile took him. His walk came out to 3.2 2 mph, which for a guy his height is

[11:58] actually a very brisk walk. Honestly, it would make him the perfect walking coach would make him the perfect walking coach for Andy and Brandon. But his run was only 4.6 mph. And if you've ever tried walking faster and faster, you know

[12:11] there's a point where jogging actually feels easier than continuing to walk. And that borderline is important because while yes, dentists still burn more difference wasn't actually that big. And so to confirm this, I tested the same

[12:26] treadmill to control for speed. She [music] burned 98 calories matching Dennis's walking speed, but when jogging at 6.2 mph, her calorie burn jumped up to 110, which is fairly consistent with most [music] of the research. Running

[12:42] compared to [music] walking the same distance. Plus, you can expect an extra 10% from the afterburn, depending on how hard you push. But what both tests show is that while it does take longer, [music] walking at a brisk pace is still

[12:56] people can be much easier [music] to stick to or just start out with compared to more demanding cardio. It's one of the reasons why meta analysis comparing less intense to more intense cardio found that they were both equally

[13:09] effective for fat loss. So the key is choosing what you'll actually be schedules, maybe you don't even have 20 minutes a day to block off for walking or running. And if that's your situation, there is a way to get an even

[13:23] better benefit from your cardio [music] in as little as 30 seconds. Now, I know true, as some people believe cardio has to last 20 minutes or longer in order to have any benefit to your health. But a recent study challenges that idea.

[13:37] Researchers had two groups. One did the classic approach, 40 minutes of slow and steady cycling. The other did what's called exercise snacks, just a 30-se secondond allout burst running up a staircase, [music] done three times

[13:51] their workouts three times a week. [music] After 6 weeks of this, the long improve their V2 max. But the stair sprint group, who trained for just 90

[14:03] seconds total each day, they improved their V2 max by 7%. [music] And this isn't just some fluke. Study after study shows these short exercise snacks can improve nearly every marker of fitness. Now, depending on your

[14:16] sprints [music] using stairs or the stairmaster, 20 bodyweight squats, 15 burpees, a minute of fast jogging. The key is pushing hard enough to spike your heart rate and doing this multiple times to break long periods of sitting. Now,

[14:31] to be clear, longer, slower sessions are still extremely beneficial for your health in other ways. But if you're tight on time, this is a powerful workaround. But with just two myths left before Andy and Brandon's retest, it's

[14:43] time to bust our next myth. Is cardio the best exercise for fat loss? So to find out, I first tracked my calorie burn during my main form of exercise, strength training. A full lower body workout that's easily my toughest

[14:56] workout of the week, complete with barbell squats, hip thrust, hack squats, and hamstring curls. After 1 hour of heavy lifting, my total calorie burn heavy lifting, my total calorie burn added up to just 370 calories. For

[15:09] comparison, it took just 25 minutes of moderate intensity on the assault bike might be surprised, but that's because lifting weights involves short bursts of effort followed by rest periods where your heart rate drops back down. Whereas

[15:23] consistent effort, which keeps my heart rate high the entire time. Which helps explain why a meta analysis from earlier this [music] year found that those who stuck to cardio for 10 weeks or more lost more total weight and slightly more

[15:37] fat compared to subjects who were only strength training. But here's where it gets complicated. If you're relying on cardio alone for fat loss, only 50 to 75% of the weight you lose typically comes from fat as your body taps into

[15:51] muscle to use for energy. and muscle loss has been shown to be correlated with higher hunger and a higher likelihood you'll eventually regain any fat that you do lose. Strength training, it fixes that by giving your body a

[16:04] reason to hold on to muscle so that almost all the weight you lose comes from fat. And in some cases, you could even get a similar result to my brother-in-law Dayton who followed his workouts and diet plan made by my Built

[16:16] with Science Plus app and lost [music] 19 lbs but also gained 6.8 8 lb of lean mass in the process, which means he actually lost 26 lb of pure fat in just

[16:28] 150 days. Now, if he had instead relied on cardio alone, while he may have lost without the muscle gain, his transformation would have looked completely different. So, no, cardio alone isn't the best exercise for fat

[16:41] loss. It strengthens your heart and it does burn more calories, but you need to pair it with strength training for the best long-term results. But what would have happened [music] if I doubled or even tripled how much cardio Dayton was

[16:53] doing? Would all that extra cardio lead to muscle loss even if he was still strength [music] training? To help me answer that question, I brought in an >> Touchdown gives the Texans the lead. I would say

[17:06] that, you know, our guys are on their feet um in terms of practice, 6 to 8 hours a week, somewhere between 6 to 7 miles um of distance covered in a

[17:19] >> That's Dr. Mark Lewis, the director of applied sports science for the Houston Texans, where he's working daily with athletes who do more cardio than any gym bro you'll ever meet, yet still manage to be incredibly jacked. I've seen 650

[17:34] lb squatters like with a a good full range of motion squat, 400 plus bench range of motion squat, 400 plus bench presses. I've seen 350 lb incline press. What's crazy is that in most of those situations, we actually didn't let them

[17:47] go to what their true max was just for safety reasons. outlier compared to most lifters. Plus, they have a team of specialists helping them manage nutrition and recovery. So, what would happen to an average lifter

[18:00] sessions per week? >> I don't think is anything that's going to move you in an opposite direction. In fact, I think it would put you in a better place from a a muscular development standpoint. I think it would

[18:13] would help your body composition. It would help you recover between your it's going to help you put on strength, help you gain lean muscle mass. In fact, convinced certain cardio methods could

[18:28] help gain rather than hurt it that they took subjects who were already fit and had them perform 45 minutes of single leg cycling followed by both legs completing the same strength workout. The results, the cycling leg grew almost

[18:41] twice as much with a lot of that growth coming from type one endurance fibers which may respond better to low resistance high rep work. But the researchers also think that the cardio itself improve the muscle's blood flow

[18:54] and nutrient delivery, which might explain why the claws of many professional cyclists are absolutely massive. Now, there is a point where doing too much cardio can actually cause muscle loss, but there's two key things

[19:06] >> Try to have strength training first, then do the aerobic. If you can separate them, I think that's ideal. And I would say separate them by um around 6 hours in a perfect world. So, if you do a really long run, that's like 90 minutes,

[19:21] 2 hours, you got to have protein after that, but you also got to make sure you carbohydrates as well, probably somewhere between 1.5 g to 2 g of And general rule of thumb, most people that worry about this stuff [music]

[19:36] because they're so far beneath a threshold of having to balance these things strategically for it to actually manage or matter. So, with no reason to fear cardio impacting your gains, it's time

[19:51] to retest Andy and Brandon to see if their two weeks of walking made any improvements to their fitness. I never felt such an like bad condition as now before I started doing workout. And I hope today my results will be better and

[20:08] uh I'll get to a better point. Yeah. And we'll be starting out with their submax test first followed by their V2 max. So, while they're completing test one, I did have a chance to add up the remaining data from our Apple Watch test. And

[20:21] I was expecting. The data we got was all over the map with different exercises where the Apple Watch would under report, others where it would over it actually seemed like the data was bang on, adding up to an average

[20:35] bang on, adding up to an average accuracy coming in at 79%. Which is expecting. So, I'm not going to say that it's completely useless, but given the range of estimates that we did get, I don't think you should rely on it for

[20:48] interesting rough data. And that is why for Brandon and Andy's final test, we're relying on the most reliable equipment available for testing. >> Scared. >> All right. 3 2 1 go.

[21:05] On his first test, [music] Andy was only able to make it 9 minutes and 36 seconds before he had to tap out. This time, when we hit the 9-minute mark, he was still going strong. >> You've got it. Over 9 minutes gone now.

[21:18] 10 minutes. Well done. >> Good job. 1020. Andy ran almost a full test. But how much did that actually improve his score?

[21:30] So, a modest improvement. >> A little bit. a little bit. Now, while that may not sound like much, that's a 3.5% increase. And for context, V2 max usually declines by about 1% per year after your mid20s. So, if Andy chose to

[21:45] do nothing, then by age 65, his score could go down to as low as 22, which like going up the stairs or getting groceries. But in just 2 weeks of walking, he didn't just slow that decline, [music] he actually pushed it

[22:00] looked at the data from his submaximal test, [music] the changes were even clearer. At the exact same brisk walking pace as last time, [music] Andy's heart rate was now lower. It recovered faster.

[22:13] His breathing was more efficient, and he was relying more on fat and less on carbs for fuel. [music] So, in other words, his heart and his muscles got better at doing the same work with less stress. And he could feel the

[22:25] difference, too. Overall [music] feeling of my body, like I feel better just in general. more healthier. And that's exactly why he's decided not to stop there. Andy wants to take this to the next level.

[22:37] So, I've decided to start personally coaching him through a calisthenics [music] get him using only his body weight. Subscribe to the channel to make sure you don't miss his transformation and comment go Andy below to show your

[22:50] hand, his results actually look quite different. He's quite fit. And while his already above average V2 max score actually managed to increase by one his submaximal test didn't show the same health improvements as Andy, suggesting

[23:05] that the bump in his max score was likely just from familiarity with the test. But his walking protocol wasn't quite enough to drive actual not within the 2 weeks. And that actually reinforces the biggest takeaway

[23:18] from this video. Exercise can work in almost any form as long as it's challenging enough for you. It doesn't have to be all out or timeconuming. Just walking already makes a difference. And

[23:30] challenging, helps keep push your fitness forward. But there's no magic exercise or perfect intensity. The best exercise is the one that you can stick approach we take with our Built with Science Plus app. It takes care of your

[23:44] strength training, your diet, and your cardio for you. Nothing extreme, just a clear plan that adjusts as you go. It's even taken my brother-in-law Dayton from this, [music] a similar starting point as Andy, all the way to this in just 150

[23:57] days. So, if you're not sure where to begin, you can scan the QR code here or check out builtwithscience.com to try it free for 2 weeks. Cuz the longer you harder it is to get back. And if you like this video, then you're going to

[24:10] kinds of cardio exercises and compared them based on calorie and fat burn. So, give that a watch and I'll see you next