Crossfit... Or Just Walk?

How an extra 6,000 steps a day can do more for long term weight loss than HIIT

When you think of Crossfit, your mind might immediately conjure up images of muscled guys and super fit women slinging heavy, iron weights over their heads. The “ultimate” definition of in shape! That’s why when you think of starting a fitness routine, you might imagine (or dread) high power workouts, bootcamp style intensity, and hours of gym time as the clear path to success. However, after working with hundreds of clients over the last 10 years, I’ve found the opposite to be true.

Those who focus not on intensity, but consistency and daily movement, are the ones who find their success, and keep it. Why is that? Let’s start with the short term view. A Crossfit or high intensity style class might help you burn 500-700 calories per hour. In contrast, a standard full body, balanced strength routine might burn 300-500 calories per hour, and going for a walk closer to just 250-350 calories per hour. Crossfit seems to be the best bang for your buck in terms of calorie burn, but let’s add up the numbers. If you’re going to Crossfit three days per week, that’s an extra 1800 calories you’ve added to your week. If you go for a one hour walk, six days a week, you’ll burn around the same 1800 calories.

You might now say, “Well, I’d much rather just do the three days a week and be done with it. Six days a week is a lot to ask for!”

Is it though?

Crossfit requires travel to the gym, changing, exercising, showering, changing, and driving back home. That could be easily two hours right there. Walking requires no extra time and can be split up into small segments throughout the day, or better yet, just counted in extra steps! Adding 6,000 steps a day, or around 3 total miles of walking, will become the equivalent of roughly 1800 calories burned by the end of the week. The even better news- keeping the intensity level low of these 1800 extra calories allows you to then add in more moderate intensity strength training without risking overtraining and burnout. Now you’re not only burning more calories than Crossfit, but you’re able to reap the benefits of resistance training! Then there’s the long term benefit, which is what we’re all really after. A 2013 study found that almost 75% of Crossfit participants surveyed had suffered an injury during their workouts. In addition, the burnout and drop off rates for Crossfit and other high intensity style training groups stays incredibly high over a long period of time. Habits with a lower barrier to entry, such as walking, have much lower drop off rates. Long term success will be determined by consistency over time, something that, for most of the population, will be won with walking, not Crossfit. Is Crossfit and HIIT all bad? Absolutely not. For some, it will change their lives and make a lasting impact. However, for the majority of people, their effectiveness has been overhyped, and finding a more reasonable, more attainable goal, such as adding 6,000 steps to their day, is a much better path to long term success.