Today, running is one of the most popular ways to combat excess weight. It really helps burn excess fat, firms the skin and at the same time promotes health. But in reality, not everyone gets the results they want. And the issue here is not that running is ineffective, but that a person does not know how to run correctly to lose weight. Let's try to solve it.
The benefits of running for weight loss and more
Running to burn fat is a simple and effective way to get rid of excess weight. It is not in vain that this sport has gained immense popularity throughout the world. he has a numberbenefits, including the following:
- Running is accessible, it does not require financial investment or special equipment, so anyone can do it.
- This is a safe sport and if you follow the basic rules, it will only bring you benefits.
- Regular exercise really helps you lose weight as it provides a powerful cardiovascular workout. On average, an hour of running burns between 500 and 700 kcal.
- Running brings extensive benefits to the person, and this refers not only to the figure, but also to health. It helps combat stress, strengthens the nervous system, trains the heart and blood vessels, improving their functioning.
- Running normalizes the functioning of the digestive system and accelerates metabolism.
- Running perfectly strengthens the muscles and keeps them toned.
- This type of activity stimulates the elimination of harmful waste, toxins and excess fluid from the body.
Although running will help everyone lose weight, it must be taken into accountcontraindications, and are next:
- serious disturbances in the functioning of the heart and blood vessels (heart defects, heart failure, blood pressure problems);
- phlebeurism;
- bronchial asthma;
- disorders of the endocrine system;
- severe vision problems;
- inflammatory processes in the body;
- infectious diseases;
- Problems of the musculoskeletal system.
People who are very overweight should consult a specialist before starting jogging, as they may cause self-harm. In your case, brisk walking or jogging may be more appropriate.
To lose weight by running, it is recommended to study different options and choose the best one. It is also very important to know how to run correctly to burn fat, study all the rules and recommendations.
Why running is good for losing weight
So, does running help you lose weight? Let's figure it out.
Problems with excess weight are usually typical of people who lead a sedentary lifestyle. Furthermore, a good half of the population now has personal vehicles. Thanks to cars, we not only stopped running, but also walking. As a result, the body accumulates fat and the muscles atrophy from uselessness.
To avoid obesity and the unpleasant consequences for your appearance and health, you should recover and go running. This is the simplest type of physical activity available to everyone. And at first it's just a quick walk. As soon as your body adapts, start running.
Let's take a closer look at how running burns fat.
Running makes the heart pump faster, which is why it is classified as cardio. With an accelerated heart rate, more blood passes through the heart per unit of time than in a calm state. The lungs also begin to work more and the blood is actively enriched with oxygen. Oxygen saturation occurs in all cells of the body, from the tips of the toes to the brain. Metabolic processes begin to move faster.
Running requires energy. To ensure its constant influx, the body uses its internal reserves. First, the glycogen stored in the liver is consumed, then the fatty deposits in our body are used. Therefore, running and being overweight are incompatible concepts. If you move actively and burn more calories than you consume from food, your excess weight will disappear. Running and weight loss are interconnected.
- When running (7-9 kilometers per hour), fat burning begins after 20-30 minutes of continuous running.
- With interval training, the fat breakdown process begins much earlier, you don't need to run for an hour to start fat catabolism. But interval running is quite a heavy load and this type of cardio is not suitable for everyone.
When talking about whether running helps you lose weight, it is important to clarify its type and duration. If we refer to classic jogging at an easy pace, the duration of the training should be at least thirty minutes.
How to run to burn fat: basic rules
We already know that the answer to the question of whether running helps you lose weight will be positive. However, there are a number of nuances that need to be taken into account for jogging to really produce results. Let's take a closer look.
Run Duration
Keep in mind that the length of your run will depend on the intensity of your training. It is also necessary to take into account the level of physical fitness and choose the load that will be optimal. It is recommended to start with races that are not too long and gradually increase their duration, as well as the distance traveled.
Running is recommendedat least 40 minutes, because only after this time does the body begin to consume not calories, but directly the hated fats. Many experts recommend interval running: it increases endurance and is great for weight loss.
Prepare and finish your training
A proper fat-burning run shouldn't start and end like this. Certain rules must be followed.Before training, consider the following:
- It is recommended to eat at least two hours before training to burn fat;
- It is useful to take a contrast shower beforehand, which will help tone the muscles and blood vessels, so it will be easier for the body to withstand the load;
- Before the main part of the lesson, do a short warm-up; This will help prevent injuries and muscle pain, as the body will be prepared for stress.
Between workouts you need to monitor your diet. Naturally, it is not recommended to eat sweets, fatty foods and other foods that are bad for your figure. Limit salt consumption as it tends to retain fluid in the body and this increases body volume. It is also important to drink enough water and you can do this during training as well.
After a race, the following recommendations will be helpful:
- Stop gradually, not abruptly. Transition from running to walking and gradually slow down. This will help restore breathing and heart rate and force the body to burn even more calories.
- After running, take a warm shower, which will help calm your muscles and nervous system.
- Avoid hypothermia. When running, the body heats up and a slight breeze or draft can negatively affect health.
Select training intensity
An important point when running to burn fat is the intensity of the run, which determines the speed of weight loss and the final results. It is important to remember that it is important not only to lose weight, but also not to harm your health.
The more intense the training, the faster the energy is consumed. Calm and relaxed running is safe for your health, but it is more suitable for staying fit than for losing weight. And too intense training can lead to exhaustion of the body and, as a result, you can begin to lose not only fat, but also muscle, and the cardiovascular system can suffer from excessive stress.
That's whyLoads should be increased gradually and steadily.If you are new to running, start with a minimum and increase them over time. You can determine the intensity of your training yourself by monitoring your heart rate. Normally, a good fat burning effect is obtained with a pulse of more than 130 beats per minute. However, if this figure exceeds 150, then the load may be too intense. With the right intensity, your heart rate should return to normal levels no more than half an hour after finishing the run.
Clothes and shoes
Proper equipment also plays an important role in race performance. Running shoes and suits for weight loss should be as comfortable as possible and not restrict movement.
Clothing should be chosen from natural and breathable materials.Canwear a special suit to lose weight, providing concentration on some problem area. For example, you can buy pants and shorts that speed up the weight loss process.
You should choose shoes that are comfortable, lightweight, and fit perfectly. It will help reduce stress on the joints and minimize the risk of injury.
Often, those who want to reduce abdominal volume are recommended to userunning and weight loss belt or transparent film. In principle, this is useful, but don't expect a miracle to happen and you will lose weight in three workouts. These elements help to speed up the process of removing excess fluid, which also has a beneficial effect on the weight loss process. There are also belts with a massage effect.
Regularity of training.
How often and for how long should you run to burn fat? Regularity is the most important key to success. The best option is to run 3 to 5 times a week. To accelerate the achievement of results, you can alternate running with another type of activity, for example, strength training or swimming. It is recommended that men combine running for weight loss with weight training.
Don't expect quick results. ExplicitPositive changes will be noticeable after 6 to 8 weeks.regular workouts.
By knowing how to run correctly to lose weight you can improve your appearance without harming your health. Additionally, it is recommended to follow the following recommendations:
- While you run, make suremonitor your physical condition.Pain and dizziness are not acceptable. Breathing should remain uniform.
- You can run both on a treadmill and in open areas.The first option is good because it is available in any weather. The second allows you to enjoy the beauty of nature and breathe fresh air, but due to weather conditions it will not always be available. It is recommended to run not on asphalt, but on the ground; This has a beneficial effect on the level of resistance and will allow you to correctly distribute the load.
- Make sure your running technique is correct.
- Positionwhile runningIt should be soft.Breathe evenly. Changes of pace should be smooth.
If you want to burn fat in a specific area by running,You can follow the following technical recommendations:
- To lose weight in your legs, it is recommended to use a technique with high hip elevations, include running with an additional step in your training and alternate running with jumping (with or without a jump rope).
- To lose weight in the stomach, apply additional tension to the abdominal muscles and always monitor their tone.
If you follow all the rules and there are no contraindications, you can safely start running and soon you will notice clear changes for the better. Also remember about proper nutrition and other types of exercise; In combination, you will get an effective program that will help you achieve an ideal figure. As an added benefit, running will help you improve your health and forget about stress and depression.
How to build strength, endurance and burn fat by running
People often underestimate running or view it unilaterally. If you want to lose weight, go running. If you want to train your heart, run too. Some people see this as an opportunity to break a personal record and prove to themselves that they can run 10K without stopping. For some, running is a way to relax the brain after a day of intellectually or nervously stressful work. It also happens the other way around: a great exercise in the morning to gain strength, energy and complete the planned work plan in record time.
A universal but insidious discipline
On the one hand, everything is like that. On the other hand, in many cases the running power is overestimated or not taken into account at all.
Therefore, running increases the effectiveness of strength training: it increases the working weight and the intensity of the training. It is an important help to get rid of excess fat. This is if everything is done correctly, which we will talk about below. There are also opposite cases.
For example, a person decided to lose weight, it doesn't matter if he is a boy or a girl, and we are going to run furiously. After all, I had heard out of the corner of my ear that running can help you lose weight. The comrade sheds seven sweats, red as a lobster, his heart jumps out of his chest, his legs give way, there is not enough air, but he continues to move his legs that have weakened, he needs to run these 3-4. km.
I ran for a month three times a week, I suffered a lot, I stood on the scales, but I didn't get any results. The reflection in the mirror hasn't changed much either. This is the best case scenario. In the worst case, he began to look bad, his health was not very good either, his knees hurt, he became emaciated (there are fewer muscles, the fat has not disappeared) and the pitiful 2-3 kg lost from a quintal Total body weight is not pleasant at all.
The fact is that it is necessary to run correctly and develop the training process intelligently, without forgetting about nutrition and other factors. Let's talk about everything in more detail.
Suitable for everyone
The running training system, which I will talk about below, is universal. It is suitable both for a completely untrained overweight person who has decided to put his body in order, and for an advanced athlete who has been training with weights for years, but ignores running for various reasons.
For example, his knees hurt, he has trouble breathing, his muscles "burn" (not burn). I can safely classify myself into the latter, and I have previously addressed the topic of execution more than once, but only now have I found truly effective methods of using it.
About ten years ago I did an experiment: I wanted to run 10 km at a time. I achieved results, but it was difficult and took more than three months. The hope of eating tasty treats while losing fat through long runs did not materialize. And I ran 10 km with difficulty, that's called "I can't. "Then I more or less got used to running (I hated it before), but these are flowers compared to the results of a reasonable approach to training.
Where to start
No type of preparation or long preparations are necessary. We ate normally, an hour and a half later we put on old sneakers, walked to the nearest stadium with rubber running tracks, set the stopwatch on our watch or smartphone toone hourand ran at an easy pace. Only a few points are important:
- Don't run on asphalt.A stadium with a rubber surface is fine, a treadmill in the gym is fine, dirt with grass is fine. Asphalt is not good, but it is an excessive load on the joints and ligaments. High-quality, individually selected sneakers (how to do this is written here) will partially solve the problem of hard surfaces, but this is not a panacea and not everyone has such an opportunity. But you can run on the surfaces described above in any Chinese sneakers, even the most anonymous ones (be prepared for calluses from these shoes).
- Work within your aerobic threshold.I described the theory in detail inThis article(section "Aerobic training"), I will not repeat myself, but I will briefly summarize it. If you have a heart rate monitor (any type, optical, chest-mounted), work within the heart rate range of 120 to 150 beats/min. The main thing is not to drown: there must be enough oxygen. Without a heart rate monitor, use your breathing as a guide. As soon as you start to choke, it becomes difficult: walk quickly until you catch your breath and then run lightly again. And you work like that for an hour. Even if you walk most of the time.
- After 60 minutes, write down how much distance you traveled during this time. Next time try running and walking more.Let it be 100 meters, 200, but more. If you do everything correctly, you won't have to strain. The body itself adapts to any reasonable load with reservation. In this case we focus on breathing and heart rate, we do not overload the body and it will respond by adapting with compensation. I rested for a day, went back to the stadium, ran/walked for an hour; I looked at my smartphone (if it can count steps), my activity tracker or counted laps, and you see, you covered more distance, but at the same time you didn't suffer or get out of breath while running. I speak from my own experience.
Working according to this system, in 2-3 months an untrained person will learn to run for an hour without rest and at a good pace, without becoming out of breath or exhausted. General well-being will improve, resistance will increase and weight will decrease, as long as the citizen does not start eating more, compensating for the greater energy consumption.
ButThe devil is in the details. Yes, this is a working system that I personally tested. You can take it and use it right now without going into details.
If you want to get the most effective result, whether it's burning fat, improving strength results in the gym or all together, read the next part of this series of articles, in which I will talk about how to run without knee pain. why you should run strictly 60 minutes, plus how to burn fat and maintain muscle.
This is real, I verified it myself. People often underestimate running or view it unilaterally. If you want to lose weight, go running. If you want to train your heart, run too. Some people see this as an opportunity to break a personal record and prove to themselves that they can run 10K without stopping. For some, running is a way to relax the brain after being mentally or nervously.
Running to lose weight: how to burn more calories?
Running is one of the most effective and fastest ways to train to lose weight. An increase in heart rate when running contributes to the consumption of large amounts of oxygen, increasing energy expenditure, which leads to fat burning. To get quick and desired results, it is important to get the right load when running, train at the right time and in the right mode.
How to run correctly to lose weight
One of the important factors influencing weight loss is high oxygen consumption, the main fat burner. It is not for nothing that running is called aerobic exercise, since it is performed with available oxygen.
An important condition for training aimed at losing weight is a well-ventilated room, fresh street air and proper breathing while running.
It is important!Correct breathing when running should be accompanied by a quick and sharp inhalation, and exhalation should be, on the contrary, gradual and smooth. You need to inhale through your nose and exhale through your mouth.
Another important factor in losing weight is your heart rate zone.Heart rate plays a crucial role in weight loss.
- Lower heart rate threshold, at which fat burning is maintained, is 120 beats per minute.
- Upper threshold, which preserves the burning of fat, not muscle, and the heart muscle does not receive excessive tension, is 160 beats per minute.
These are averages. But for everyone, you can calculate an individual heart rate zone, depending on age.
We subtract your age from the maximum heart rate of 220 beats per minute. Take 30 years as an example.
- 220 - 30 = 190 beats per minute: we get our maximum heart rate.
- We multiply our maximum by 0. 6 to calculate 60% of our own maximum.
190 * 0. 6 = 114 beats per minute - the lower limit of the pulse. We calculate the upper limit of the heart rate, 80% of the maximum.
190*0. 8=152 beats per minute.
Therefore, at the age of thirty, the permissible heart rate zone is 114 to 152 beats per minute.
How many calories do you burn when running?
In an hour of running, on average, you can lose up to 700-800 kcal. The indicators depend on the degree of load, age, weight and physical condition.
How much should you run to lose weight?
The duration of the training also plays an important role.To achieve your goals you should not exceed 60 minutes of running.Training for more than an hour will not only overload the body as a whole, which, on the contrary, will slow down weight loss, but will also begin to burn muscle fibers.
But alsoLess than 20 minutes does not make any sense to train.
To run effectively it is important to rest less without lowering your heart rate, but it is not necessary to run at the same pace. To burn fat, interval jogging is also suitable, in which you spend more time running and a little less walking.
You can run both outdoors and on the gym treadmill. Special simulators are adapted to set the angle of inclination, to simulate an uphill climb. This method is perfect for interval training, instead of resting while walking, go uphill. By increasing the load, you can burn more calories and also put more pressure on your glutes and hamstrings.
When is the best time to run to lose weight?
For each person, depending on the pace of life, the best time to train will be different.
Research has shown that for most people effective training occurs in the afternoon, especially at night.
One of the popular ways to lose weight is to run in the morning on an empty stomach. After sleeping, glycogen stores are depleted, so the body uses its own fats for energy. This workout should not be long, 30 minutes is enough, otherwise, in addition to fat, there is a risk of losing muscle mass.
You can do two half-hour workouts a day: in the morning and in the evening.
3-4 workouts per week are enough.Rest from aerobic exercise is no less important than rest from strength training. The body needs time to recover, without it, the fat burning process will be impossible.
It doesn't matter what time of day you exercise, if after the night your body is rested and full of energy, running in the morning will bring no less benefits than running in the evening. It is important to feel your own body here.
Running program to lose weight in tables.
The training scheme is designed for various levels of difficulty, both for outdoor and treadmill running. It may take 2 to 4 weeks of training to adapt to the program. If running becomes easier, move on to an advanced level.
Outdoor running for beginners
interval time
| Run | 2 minutes |
| quick ride | 2 minutes |
The first workouts are designed for 30-40 minutes. Every week it is necessary to increase the duration of the session and the duration of the race.
Outdoor running for those who are fit
interval time
| Run | 5 minutes |
| Walking | 2 minutes |
Training must be40 to 60 minutes maximum.
Treadmill gym workout for beginners.
interval time
| Run | 2 minutes |
| Walking on a slope | 2 minutes |
Treadmill race for advanced
interval time
| Run | 5-10 minutes |
| Walking on a slope | 2-3 minutes |
Don't start running right away with cold muscles. After exercise, it is advisable to stretch your muscles.
If necessary, the load can be increased by increasing speed and reducing rest time. So you can go from interval training to running continuously for an hour.
Conclusion
In fact, running is a quick and easy way to lose weight. An important condition for training is proper breathing, pulse and the load-rest ratio. Remember, to lose weight it is important not only to run, your caloric expenditure must exceed your caloric intake. Accordingly, it is necessary to monitor your diet, not overeat and limit the intake of simple carbohydrates.