JJ Virgin argues that long-distance running burns muscle along with fat, slowing your metabolism. She recommends replacing some weekly runs with resistance training and HIIT to preserve muscle, improve fat burning, and reduce dangerous belly fat.
Long-distance running could actually make you fatter. What? Here, let me explain. So when you do long-distance running, it's actually catabolic. So yes, you'll lose some fat, but you'll also lose some muscle. That can have a boomerang effect because muscle, remember, is your metabolic Spanx. It's going to keep your metabolism stored— supported. It's going to give sugar a place to land in your muscles, and it's a place where you burn fat. So swap some of that long-distance running for for some time doing resistance training, and you're going to see far better results. I'm not saying don't do cardio though. Here's what I love. I love high-intensity interval training because high-intensity interval training is a great way to train your body to work hard and recover. Good for your HRV and also good for raising lactate, which is an amazing fuel for both your brain and your heart. And it's also great for burning off that visceral adipose tissue, that bad fat around your organs.
