Weight Loss Running: How to Exercise and Eat to Get Results

Does running really help you lose weight?

It helps, and it's a proven fact. For a year of quiet half-hour jogging four times a week, you can lose about 3.3 kg without any diets.

Moreover, jogging helps to lose weight and maintain weight better than walking and exercising on an exercise bike (the latter is true for overweight and obese people).

But despite the proven effectiveness, even regular exercise can leave you without results if you do not take into account some important factors. Below we will discuss how to run to lose weight for sure.

If you have problems with the cardiovascular system or musculoskeletal system, or if you are very overweight or obese, consult your doctor before starting exercise.

How to jog for weight loss

Start gradually

If the last time you ran was several years ago, you should not rush off the bat. Your main tasks: to gradually accustom the body to physical activity, to maintain health and the desire to run.

In the first workouts, alternate light running with brisk walking. For example, run for three minutes, then walk for the next two minutes and go back to running.

Repeat this five-minute series six times for a wonderful half-hour workout that will tire any beginner. As you get used to it, reduce your walking time until you can run without stopping for 30 minutes.

After that, congratulate yourself on a small victory, but don't relax.

Increase the intensity

Running, no matter how hard it may seem at first, does not spend as many calories as we would like. For example, 30 minutes of running at a speed of 8 km / h burns only about 290 kcal for a person weighing 70 kg.

Energy consumption increases with speed. The same person for half an hour of running at a speed of 10 km / h has already spent 360 kcal, and if he accelerates to 12 km / h - about 450 kcal.

The Cochrane Research Review mentioned that intense exercise increased weight loss results by 1.5 kg per year compared to more relaxed exercise. So it makes sense to strain a little more in your workouts.

Set a goal to close one kilometer out of your run a little faster and see how that affects your well-being. If all went well, try running a little more at your chosen speed next time.

You can also gradually increase your running time - this will also have a good effect on your energy consumption.

Alternate quiet running with HIIT and sprints

There are several methods of running training that are effective for losing weight:

Long, quiet runsat the same pace. As a rule, they last 30-60 minutes, and all this time you work at a low heart rate of about 130-140 beats per minute.
High intensity interval training(HIIT). This is a method in which short, high-paced intervals alternate with quieter recovery periods. For example, when you run for one minute at a heart rate of 90% of the maximum (about 170 beats per minute), then 30 seconds - at 60% of the maximum (114 beats / minute), and repeat this for 15-20 minutes.
Interval sprints(IS). This is when you give your best for a short time, and then rest. For example, run for 30 seconds with all your might, then rest for 4 minutes and repeat this several times.

There is some evidence that interval training is more suitable for weight loss than long, quiet cardio. In one study, 20 men and women either ran quietly for 30-60 minutes three times a week or did 4-6 sprints of 30 seconds each.

After six weeks, the sprint group lost 12.6% body fat, while the quiet cardio group lost only 5.8%.

The same was noticed in three other experiments, involving 23 and 49 young healthy women: in 6 and 15 weeks of training, intense interval training helped to lose significantly more fat than long calm cardio.

But a meta-analysis of 31 scientific papers did not confirm the advantages of HIIT and sprints over calm cardio. Scientists concluded that both options are good, but the difference between them is negligible.

In another review, 13 studies found that both quiet jogging and high-intensity intervals helped overweight people lose about 0.8 kg of excess body fat. True, it was noted that intervals spend 40% less time.

So doing absolutely all interval training runs is definitely not worth doing. Moreover, they are quite energy-consuming for the body and require a lot of time to recover.

But, given the good prospects for losing weight, you don't need to give them up either. Moreover, HIIT perfectly pump endurance. And the longer you can run, the more calories you burn.

Get 1–2 interval running workouts per week combined with gentle, long-term cardio.

An example of an interval sprint for 60 minutes:

Warm-up: 20 minutes of running at a calm pace.
Sprints: 1 minute of running at maximum effort, 2 minutes of brisk walking for recovery. Repeat 8 times.
Cool Down: 15 minutes of quiet jogging.

Example of HIIT for 20 minutes:

Warm-up: 5 minutes of running at a calm pace
Intervals: Run 9 out of 10, then run lightly for 90 seconds. Repeat 4-6 times.
Cool down: light jogging for 5 minutes.

Adjust the time and intensity based on your physical capabilities and sensations. Monitor your condition - if you feel unwell, stop training.

Add strength exercises

For all its benefits, running will not increase muscle mass. And if, in addition to exercising, you reduce the number of calories in the diet, it is unlikely to help preserve muscle.

Strength training is recognized as the best strategy for protecting against muscle loss. In an experiment involving 60 women, they found that diet, combined with strength training, allows you to maintain and even slightly increase muscle mass. Quiet cardio, on the other hand, significantly reduces the amount of muscle.

In another experiment, women who performed strength training in addition to interval cardio lost an average of 1.3 kg of fat and increased muscle mass. But those who did long, calm cardio without strength, and did not lose fat, and did not build up muscles.

Maintaining muscle is important not only for appearance, but also for maintaining metabolism. The volume of muscle mass is directly related to the expenditure of energy at rest. Losing muscle will naturally lower your energy expenditure and slow down your weight loss.

Do strength training twice a week on rest days or quiet jogging.

At the same time, it is not necessary to visit the gym - exercises with your body weight will be enough. To build your legs, do squats, daisies, lunges, and jumps. To strengthen the top - push-ups from the floor and pull-ups on the horizontal bar, for the muscles of the body - a bar and twisting.

Make a full-body strength workout of 5-6 exercises and do them in 2-3 sets of 8-12 reps for the upper body, 20 reps for the bottom, and 20-25 for the abs.

How to eat for those who are engaged in jogging for weight loss

Nutrition is the main factor that can help you lose weight or, conversely, negate all your efforts.

The Cochrane Review noted that if you combine exercise with diet, you can lose from 3.4 to 17.7 kg, while without attention to nutrition, this figure drops to 0.5-4 kg in the same time.

So if you are in the mood for significant weight loss, be sure to pay attention to this aspect.

1. Create a calorie deficit in your diet, but not too large … For weight loss without harm to health, it is recommended to lose weight by 0.5-1 kg per week. To lose about so much, calculate the required calorie intake using and subtract 300-500 kcal from the resulting value.

If you do not want to keep records, give up high-calorie and not particularly healthy foods: sugar and sugary drinks, fast food, processed flour products, alcoholic beverages.

2. Don't reward yourself for your efforts.… In one small study, 16 men and women spent 200–300 kcal on a treadmill. At the same time, they themselves considered that they burned 3-4 times more (about 800 kcal). And in the end, after jogging, they allowed themselves a meal, the calorie content of which was about 500 kcal.

It is especially easy to exceed the norm if you are used to rewarding yourself with sweets or junk food. One muffin contains about 370 kcal, a slice of pizza - about 400 kcal.

Pamper yourself after a run, and you will cross out all half-hour efforts in five minutes.

3. Run on an empty stomach only if it suits you. You often hear that running on an empty stomach helps you burn more fat. A meta-analysis of scientific papers has shown that fasting exercise does increase fat oxidation, but only at mild to moderate intensity. When the pulse accelerates to 150–160 beats per minute, the difference disappears.

But even if you exercise at a low intensity, increased fat oxidation will not necessarily accelerate weight loss. A study of 20 young women tested whether exercising on an empty stomach could help you lose more fat. After a month of training, all the women had significantly lost weight, and there was no difference between those who ran on an empty stomach and those who had previously had breakfast.

Run on an empty stomach if you feel comfortable doing it. If not, do not torture yourself, believing that this will help you burn more fat.

Remember that the intensity and regularity of exercise, as well as the total number of calories consumed per day, matter much more than what time you eat.