Ask a Trainer
Two elite 24 Hour Fitness Trainers tackle your most burning in-the-gym questions.
I was told that I have to run slower to burn more fat. How can that possibly be correct?
-- Amanda, Denver
[sighing] Good Lord. Exertion is exertion. Quit looking for gimmicks and just get into the gym and do it. That's when you'll reap the benefits.
If you're looking to lose weight, it's going to be more about intensity and duration. There is a very small difference between how people burn fat versus how they burn calories, but for the average person who wants to drop a few, running slower won't make a difference. It'll just make their workout longer. And actually, an Olympic sprinter has just as little body fat as a long-distance runner -- so it may be smarter for someone trying to lose fat to exert.
I don't know about that. I tell my clients—why run? There are some great runners, but 99.9 percent of people just pound, which is bad for your knees and your hips. If you get on the treadmill to walk at 4 miles per hour with the incline at level 1 or 2, it's going to accomplish for most people what running will. You can move to the elliptical or the Stairmaster if walking isn't strenous enough.
Your crazy I'm always right
Meet the Experts
Two trainers, both with impeccable credentials but very different styles.
Brandy Bachmeyer, 28, a former Olympic weightlifter, is a rare amalgam of brains, brawn, and perkiness. Sort of like a cross between MacGyver and a local TV weatherperson. In a good way. An elite trainer at San Ramon Supersport Club in California, Brandy regularly puts in 12-hour days, sometimes joining them as they train for half-marathons—even surveying the contents of their sub-Zeros.
Scott Nunes, a trainer at the 24 Hour Fitness in Escondido, California knows firsthand that getting fit doesn’t just happen. “I used to be a bona fide couch potato,” Nunes avows. When Nunes was in his mid 20s, he had back surgery, developed arthritis, and found himself weighing in at 260 pounds: “When my one-and-a-half-year-old son raced me to the top of the stairs and beat me, I started doing pushups and sit ups that day,” he recalls. Nunes, 37, got in great shape, which helped him raise his son, who’s now 14.
COMBINED WISDOM Don't go slow-mo because you think it'll burn more fat. But do it if you've got tricky knees or hips, since walking at an incline is just fine.
