Running and Weight Loss Tips

 Running is an excellent way to help you lose weight. The more calories you burn in a day helps you better balance the calories that you consume. Running also helps you strengthen your heart, lungs, improves blood circulation, and lowers triglycerides. Running can be a very social undertaking in that you can get support from fellow runners and benefit from the personal achievements reaching specific goals is always a positive thing. All of these things help make running to lose weight a great way to exercise and get other health benefits too.

Running and weight loss are a natural combination but it may not be for everyone. The one complaint for most beginners and experienced runners is the time it takes to run often. Since speed is rarely the goal unless you are going to compete, time is the biggest negative. You have to get ready, often travel to running area, cool down and of course shower. Most people say they spend at least two hours in their running periods. That's a good chunk of time and when you have a fulltime job and children it's not always easy to find the time.

Exercise alone can help you lose weight but it is a slow process. Exercise is just one tool in the chest for losing weight, not the end all solution. You can never escape the basic fact that caloric intake has a huge impact on any weight loss efforts. The additional benefits of better health is a huge plus for establishing any regular exercise to include running. And running has a few cons and pros, just like all types of exercise. Let's take a quick look and see both good and bad issues about running for weight loss.

Running to lose weight pros:

• No special equipment needed other than good pair of running shoes
• Extra health benefits (like we mentioned above)
• It can be individual or with others (social benefits)
• Most people sleep better, have more energy
• You can do it almost anywhere

Now the running to lose weight cons:

• Not everyone can do it (medical or physical issues)
• It takes time (most spend well over an hour or more)
• Slow results (it takes time to build up stamina)
• Weather issues if you run outside
• Like any exercise routine you have to stick with it

So lets say you are starting out from scratch, you have never really been a runner but you want to start. Running is a natural step up from walking and increases the caloric burn rate considerably (running the same amount of time is over double the calorie burn rate of walking). The key to running is to start out slow and build up your strength and endurance. You also want to make sure that you get some good running shoes and break them in slowly before trying to run long times or distances. Make sure you bring along some water (no sports drinks, sodas, etc.) and keep properly hydrated.

So the best way to start is adding some running time to your daily walking routine. If you walk for say an hour a day, you can add 3-4 minute runs to your walking time. Walk for 10 minutes, then slowly increase your gait to a run for 4 minutes, then slow back down for 10 minutes. Make sure that you practice deep breathing and keep the running at acceptable gait (speed is not an issue at this point, endurance is the first goal). As your strength and endurance slowly

increases, so should your running time. Move at your own pace and within 2 to 3 weeks you should be running more than you are walking. And as shown by the calorie burn rate in the above graph, you more than doubled the amount of calories burned per hour. Same time invested but a lot more calories burned.

One good trick that is recommended by many beginners is to slowly build up your endurance by speeding up and slowing down during the run to give you time to slowly increase your strength. Once you are comfortable running the entire walking period, increase your distance or speed slowly. Most beginning runners take at least 12 weeks to get to the full running phase. And it may be a very slow run, that's fine. Once you have your endurance built up, speed up for about 4 minutes after each 10 minutes just like we did on the walking to running. This slow increase in speed will dramatically increase your calorie burn. 

What kind of results will you see on running to lose weight? That depends on many factors outside of the running. Although running and weight loss go hand in hand, there is the issue of caloric intake everyday. You can never escape the basic numbers of calories you consume each day. But lets say you continue to take in your normal calories and begin running. There are approximately 3500 calories to a pound. So if you run three times a week for an hour, that burns around 2300 extra calories so that comes to about 9300 calories a month or a little over 2.5 pounds of weight loss. Add in that you will certainly achieve some great health benefits too and that makes it a very good deal all the way around.

And if you can reduce your caloric intake by about 300-400 calories a day you can double that amount of weight loss per month. Taking out 400 calories can be as simple as eating grilled rather than fried foods, eliminating one soda a day, or skipping that extra Latte. Not terribly difficult for most people. Running and weight loss really improve if you pay a little attention to what you eat and the bonus is you can get healthier too.

The toughest part of any exercise routine is to stick with it over the long haul. It takes time and effort to incorporate running three times a week into your schedule. Finding a few running buddies helps (have more than one just in case), running in different locations helps break up the boredom, and participating in local fun runs or fund raisers can help too. Anything that helps keep you interested and makes running more fun can keep you on track and running every week.