I Did One of the Best Exercises for Fat Loss for 2 Months — Here’s Exactly What I Lost, Gained, and Changed

What 2 months of stair-climbing twice a week did to my body composition, cardiovascular fitness, and more

Photo by Sami Abdullah on Pexels

It blew my mind.

A few months ago, I tested different types of walking to see which one was the best for fat loss in terms of calorie burn, accessibility, and enjoyment.

Brisk and incline walking were among the best, but none surprised me as much as stair climbing.

Now, you might be thinking: What does stair climbing have to do with walking?

Well, I just figured that since we all climb a couple of stairs every day, why not include it in the experiment? After all, a great rule of thumb for maximizing fat loss is to squeeze the most out of our daily movement.

If I could double the calories burned from the same steps I took with minimal effort (no changing clothes or going to the gym), why not?

Because that’s what I realized while running that experiment: Stair climbing burns way more calories than taking those same steps in flat terrain, which, in theory, would make it better for fat loss.

Better yet, stair climbing also helps build muscle, so to say I was intrigued would be an understatement.

What would happen if I committed to stair climbing two days per week for 2 months?

With this question in mind, I went all in with stair climbing, which is what I’ll share here, covering:

• The experience itself, including every best practice I learned along the way.
• The results. Did I lose fat? Did I build muscle? Was there anything else?
• Whether it was worth it.

Spoiler alert: I’ve decided to continue stair climbing indefinitely. The results of my 2-month experiment will explain why.

Climbing My Way to Better Health

The first rule I established when starting this experiment was that I wouldn’t stair climb more than two times per week.

Why?

Because it’s intense. Just 20 minutes gets my heart pounding like crazy and has me drenched in sweat. And as I didn’t want to overtrain — I already do around 3 hours of resistance training per week and walk around 15k steps daily — I decided that two 20-minute stair-climbing sessions would be my goal.

That settled the frequency and duration of my stair climbing sessions.

In terms of location, this is what made this challenge very appealing to me. As I’ve recently become a mom, I don’t have time to go to a gym or go out for runs, which is why being able to simply walk out my door to climb stairs (I live on the first floor of a 9-story building) and then get back inside was extremely convenient.

It was like working out at home.

So, once I knew the what, how, how long, and where, I went all in.

Here’s what I learned along the way.

Month 1

I’ll be honest: I didn’t really enjoy stair climbing at first

In fact, I gave this type of “walking” 1/3 in terms of enjoyment during the experiment I ran.

Running into my neighbors was extremely awkward. As an introvert, I just found it so uncomfortable.

And then there was the soreness.

I could barely walk the days after the first stair-climbing session. My calves were on fire. I clearly wasn’t used to climbing 64 flights of stairs (8 floors x 8 repetitions).

Lastly, although stair climbing was extremely convenient since I only had to go out my door, it left me pretty sweaty. But to be fair, when I walk faster than usual or with an incline, I also get sweaty. So I shouldn’t really hold this against stair climbing.

A bit of sweat is part of the deal when we want to burn more calories per step taken.

And you know what? As I climbed more and more stairs, my initial negative reaction completely transformed.

I never got sore again. And, although I kept running into my neighbors, it actually led me to get to know some of them, which I had been meaning to do (or at least I’d told myself I would do when I moved here 4 years ago).

Moreover, I realized that stair climbing could be just as easy to combine with other activities as walking.

If you’ve read some of my writing before, you probably already know I’m a walking junkie. I love walking and will do almost anything while walking — even breastfeeding.

And although I haven’t breastfed while stair-climbing (and wouldn’t recommend it), I was able to scroll, listen to a podcast, talk on the phone, and even answer some emails — all while training my heart and legs.

Amazing.

Lastly, as I love to track my workouts, it didn’t take me long to notice that stair climbing was doing wonders for my cardiorespiratory fitness. Going up the 8 flights of stairs, going back down, and then repeating that 7 more times created an intense interval training session that helped me increase my VO2 Max, one of the strongest predictors of longevity (I’ll talk more about this below in the results).

Two examples of the stair-climbing sessions. As you can see, my heart rate fluctuated in short intervals, which is great for improving cardiorespiratory fitness. Source: author. Data from my Apple Watch.

All in all, after the first month, I was getting hooked.

Note: Another really important thing I learned was that stretching is a must. Although I rarely stretch after walking around my neighborhood (even if I’m brisk walking), it’s vital after stair climbing to avoid the dreaded calf soreness.

Month 2

In the second month, I decided to get a little adventurous.

I ran two experiments within the experiment.

One of them was with a weighted vest. I did my usual 20-minute stair-climbing routine, but with a weighted vest that added 10% to my total weight.

Left (me with the weighted vest). Right (the stair-climbing session with the vest.) Source: author.

Now, of course, I ended up burning more calories — around 6.5% to be precise (compared to climbing the 64 flights of stairs without the vest, as you can see above). And of course, I was sore the next day, as my body was once again exposed to a more intense stimulus.

At first glance, these two observations would make wearing a weighted vest while stair climbing a no-brainer. I could potentially build more muscle and burn more fat while investing the same amount of time.

But… Damn, it was hard. For just an extra 6.5% of calories burned, I felt destroyed. To me, this took enjoyment to a 0/3, so for me, it’s not worth it at all.

However, it possibly could have been a great idea had I added weight progressively, which is something I learned from the second experiment: going faster.

Since I knew that walking faster burned more calories than walking the same amount of time yet slower, I thought: Why not try to climb the stairs faster?

The result?

A disaster. I almost sprained my ankle. Not to mention I felt like I might die. I ended up quickly abandoning this experiment.

However, as the second month went by and my body adjusted to stair climbing, I ended up climbing faster without meaning to.

At the end of the second month, I could climb the 8 flights of stairs between my floor and the penthouse 9 times instead of 8 in the same 20-ish minutes.

Two examples of my stair-climbing sessions in the second month. As you can see, I was able to climb the 8 flights of stairs 9 times compared to the 8 I could do in the first month (see the screenshots above). Source: author.

In short, when trying to progressively intensify stair climbing, it’s better to go about it slowly. The body will adapt. It always does — which I clearly saw when analyzing my results.

Before moving forward, here are the top 6 things I learned:

1. Two short sessions per week is more than enough to see results and avoid overtraining (especially if you’re already doing other forma of exercise like resistance training or running).

2. The discomfort of running into random neighbors gets better with time.

3 Don’t try to increase the intensity too fast by either adding weight or increasing speed. The improvements will come with time.

4. Combine stair climbing with other activities to make it more enjoyable. Listen to a podcast, watch a video, or answer some emails.

5. Calf soreness is normal at first, but it goes away very fast and it never returns.

6. Stretching is a must.

What Stair Climbing Regularly Did for My Body Composition and Cardiovascular Health

As I mentioned in the intro, the results blew me away. But funnily enough, not for the reason I started the experiment in the first place.

Although I did lose some fat and build a bit more muscle, the most exciting improvement was in my cardio fitness.

Body composition

As you can see below, I lost a bit of fat and gained an almost imperceptible amount of muscle (at least according to my bathroom scale, which uses bioimpedance to check body composition).

Body composition before vs. after the two-month experiment. Source: author. Data from my Lepulse bioimpedance scale.

As you can see, although I gained very little muscle, I lost a bit of fat, which, for an already lean physique like mine, is really hard to pull off without losing muscle as well.

And all this was while I continued to eat and live as usual, which meant stair climbing 2 times per week for 20 minutes was indeed a great way to achieve some extra fat loss without losing muscle (the key to achieving a lean, athletic physique).

Heart health

This is what blew me away.

After 10 months of reduced activity (challenging pregnancy + postpartum), my VO2 Max (a measure of cardiorespiratory fitness) had dropped by around 25% compared to my pre-pregnancy self.

Left (My VO2 max when I got my Apple Watch — right before getting pregnant). Right (My VO2 Max 4 weeks post-labor). Data from Health app. Source: author.

As you can imagine, once my OBGYN cleared me for exercise, I was determined to regain my cardio fitness.

However, although resuming my daily steps and going back to 3 hours of resistance training per week got me back up by around 10%, I was unable to reach my pre-pregnancy cardio fitness until I included stair climbing.

I’m now happy to report that my VO2 Max is almost the same as my pre-pregnancy self.

My current VO2 Max. Source: author.

This is thanks to the interval-style training that stair climbing provides for our hearts.

Yay!

Other results

Here’s everything else I noticed:

• Mood boost. Every single time I finished my 20-minute stair workout, I had the biggest mood boost. Such an amazing perk.
• Creativity boost. I also felt more focused and creative once I sat down to work. This wasn’t odd considering this is one of the benefits of vigorous exercise.
• Deeper sleep. On the days I stair-climbed, I also slept more deeply. Either that or my husband somehow didn’t snore those particular nights (unlikely, I know). So another yay for stair climbing.
• Increased social connection with my community. I now feel more at ease with my neighbors. We even smile at each other during random encounters.

All in all, stair climbing has been an incredibly positive experience as it’s helped me improve my body composition and drastically increase my VO2 Max, all while boosting my mood, creativity, sleep, and social connection. Definitely a 10/10.

Stair Climbing: Yay or Nay?

As you can guess, stair climb is 100% a yay for me.

But what about you?

Well, if you can easily access a stairwell, have no knee — or other pertinent underlying medical condition — then why not?

With stair climbing, all it’ll take to improve your body composition and cardio fitness is to do around 20 minutes, 2 times per week. A small time investment for something that can potentially have incredible benefits in the short and long term.

So why not give it a try?

At worst, you’ll realize you hate stair climbing and call it quits. No harm done.

At best, you’ll climb your way to better health.