How To Lose Weight By Running?

Written by: Ashlin J Thekken

The impetus behind running for most people is to lose weight and maintain a well-toned body. Running is by far the most vigorous exercise out there and thus becomes an effective means to burn off calories for weight loss. You can lose close to 100 calories per mile while running.

So if you are asking, will running make you lose weight? The answer would a big resounding yes, but you must follow certain techniques for it to be really effective.

Techniques For Running To Lose Weight

Here are few essential techniques to be employed to lose weight by running. The failure to follow these simple pointers is usually the cause of low or no results from a weight loss perspective. So here’s how to start running to lose weight.

1. Burn enough calories

Remember that you will only lose weight while running if you burn more calories than you consume. To lose one pound it is estimated that you will need to burn close to 3600 calories and on an average you tend to lose 100 calories per mile on a nominal pace of 4 to 5 mile per hour. In order to maintain a toned body it is estimated that you should burn off 30% of your calorie intake through physical exercise or other life functions.

2. Stay consistent with your running

Run regularly if you want lose weight and maintain it that way. You will end up losing a few pounds through a week of rigorous running but it is just as easy to gain back the lost weight if you slack for the next week. If you find it difficult to run each day, try running at 3 to 4 times a week.

3. Don’t let your body settle to a routine

As your body starts adapting to your running routine, it will shed weight much more slowly. If you want to increase the rate of weight lose you must up the ante and challenge your body further. Try the following tips.

1. Increase the number of miles you run per day
2. Increase the speed of your running
3. Double your speed for short bursts every now and then

This way your body can never settle into a comfortable regime and thus will feel constantly challenged.

Nutritional Requirements For Runners Who Want To Lose Weight

Follow these tips on how to eat right in order attain weight loss through running.

1. Small portions of high calorie food – Eat small potions of high calorie foods and incorporate un-saturated fats in your diet. You chief source of carbohydrates should be whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables.

2. Avoid over-compensating the calories – Don’t over-compensate by eating up foods, and drinking beverages, that provide much more calories than lost through running. This way you will not be able to lose weight fast enough. There are runners who have gained weight because of this mistake in their nutrition intake.

3. Maintain a calorie log – Keep a log of foods that you eat and get an approximation on the number of calories you consume per day vs the calories that are burnt out through the running

Make Running A Priority

If you are thinking of losing weight by running, and maintaining a toned body forever, then consistency is the key. Discipline brings success to any activity, it is the same with weight loss through running. Don’t let excuses get in your way at any time. Use the following tips to stay on the running regime on daily basis.

1. Make it a habit to run in the morning as compared to any other time of the day. There are no excuses for not hitting the road for 30 minutes first thing in the morning whereas you can come up with several excuses to avoid your workouts in the evening.

2. Get ample sleep so you won’t get groggy the next day, if you don’t sleep well you are more likely to skip the morning run.

3. Sleep with your tracks on or set them near your bed so you can dress up as soon as you get up. Many runners tend to sleep with their jogging clothes on so they can just put on their shoes and hit the road in the morning.

4. It is more fun to jog with a few friends than to do it alone. Moreover you can form a motivational group, waking up any slacker who feels the need to over-sleep.

If you follow these simple tips and keep the above mentioned techniques in mind, you will be well on your way to lose weight by running. Weight loss is never permanent, so don’t end up

Is Jogging The Best Way To Burn Calories?

Written by: Ashlin J Thekken

When you are at your ideal weight you ensure that your body is not carrying around an unnecessary “load”, which ensures less stress on your bone structure and also prevents undue pressure on vital organs. Most of the aches and pains that manifest are due to high amounts of stress on the bone structure owing to excess weight that’s held in your body.

A lot of organ based diseases, especially heart diseases, are owing to high fat deposition around them (excess weight is always stored as “fat”). And of course, a body at ideal weight looks more attractive than a body which is over-weight. These are good enough reasons for you to be committed to ensuring that you are at your ideal weight at every stage in your life.

Burning excess calories, that you obtained from your diet, is the best way to stay at your ideal weight other than bringing a moderation in your diet to ensure you don’t consume more than what your body finds sufficient. Jogging is one of the best aerobic exercises to burn off the excess calories, shave off the past fat deposition in your body and stay fit by improving the overall body stamina and vitality.

Jogging by definition means “slow running” or low paced running. So basically it’s about running at brisk pace without sprinting hard. However, a lot of additional benefits can be had when you integrate some sprinting into your jogging routine – I will discuss some pointers, on how to do this, later in this article. For now I would just like to make it clear that in the context of this post I am referring to jogging as “running” and am not holding a strict definition of pigeon holing it into a “slow paced” running.

Is Jogging The Best Aerobic Workout For Burning Calories?

In my perspective, when you compare jogging/running with other common work outs like walking, cycling, dancing (yeah, it can be considered a work out), resistance training (like weight lifting) or swimming, it seems to burn off more calories per minute, or per mile, as the case may be – I am sure there is researched evidence which backs this claim for most cases.

Scientifically, it’s suggested that we burn 1 calorie per liter of oxygen inhaled, so when you involve yourself in a strenuous activity which involves harder/deeper breathing you burn more calories. Jogging, integrated with some short sprints, involves a lot more breathing than the other work outs that I mentioned and thus burns more calories. Though, “weight training” is definitely a close match because of the amount of calories that are expended in enduring the resistance of the work out.

It’s suggested that jogging can burn close to 100 calories per mile. An average human being would take close to 10-12 minutes to jog a mile, so that’s like 10 calories burnt per minute, which is definitely a good number. It’s also suggested that if you weigh more than 150 pounds you end up burning 8-10% more calories than a person who is less than 150 pounds in weight – the logic being that the more strain the body needs to endure the more calories that are burnt in the process.

Are There Any Disadvantages To Jogging?

All physical activities are bound to strain your body, and when done in excess, or through an improper form, can lead to injuries – jogging is no different. If you are a beginner at jogging, you need to be extra careful the first couple of weeks, allowing the body to start adapting to the strain of this activity. Your muscles need to adapt, your bone structure needs to adapt and your stamina levels need to adapt. If you overdo this work out, before your body is ready, you are likely to acquire an unnecessary injury which may take time to heal.

It’s also suggested that jogging, being a “high impact” work out, puts a lot of strain on your knees, ankles and hip joints – which can lead to damage in the long run. But, knowing the intelligence of a human body, it’s my perspective, that if you continue jogging with the right form, in slow progression, without over straining yourself, your body will adapt itself to this routine without any injury to its body structure. In fact, your body will develop a stronger bone structure around the areas that are facing the highest impact, if you allow it the time to do so. That’s why it’s so important to start off slow and build the intensity gradually.