Of the many forms of cardiovascular exercise, running is one of the most efficient ways to take off excess weight. When trying to lose weight via running, the cardinal rule is to burn more calories than you take in, so keep your calorie expenditure and your calorie intake in mind when planning how much you'll need to run a week to lose weight.
Establish a Base
If you need to lose weight, you more than likely have been sedentary for a while. Because you have not been exercising for a while, you need to rebuild your fitness base with a long, slow, progressive program. Choose one of the many "Couch to 5K" programs available for beginning runners. One such program, from Columbus, Ohio, running specialty store FrontRunner, involves a 10-week schedule. The first week you walk only for 30 minutes at a time. The second week you start adding short, 30-second intervals of running with the walking. As the remaining weeks progress, you add more and more running, and by the 10th week you are running for a full 30 minutes.
Individual Needs
Dr. Tim Noakes states in "Lore of Running" that "Human weight control is a very complex problem...beyond just an imbalance between daily food intake and energy expenditure." Running burns about 100 calories per mile of running, and this number varies according to your size and effort level.
According to Josh Clark of Cool Running, when running for weight loss, you need to find a balance between "an exercise level sufficiently intense to burn more calories, but not so intense that you stop burning fat altogether." He asserts this can be done with a moderately paced run of 40 minutes, which burns around 500 calories. Coupled with a moderate meal plan that keeps calories at around 2,500 a day, you can keep your calories below the "break-even" point. Balance what you eat throughout the day with what you burn.
Raise the Bar
After you establish a fitness and running base, its time to raise the bar by increasing your weekly mileage. According to Jim Fixx in "The Complete Book of Running," most women will lose between 10 to 12 pounds, and men 20 or more, during their first year of running. Dr. Noakes says that once you have achieved the initial weight loss, your body adapts, becomes more fuel-efficient and will plateau at a certain weight. Unfortunately this plateau may still be higher than your goal weight. By increasing your weekly running mileage, you create greater demands for more energy usage and therefore burn more calories.
Nutrition Needs
As your weight drops with your running, you need to come to some type of balance with your nutrition. While noting that you still need to burn more calories than you take in to achieve weight loss, Clark notes that you can eat moderate meals and eat healthy snacks throughout the day to reach the break-even point with your calories.
Running 4 to 6 miles a day for at least five days a week will keep you on your weight loss track.
Finding a Balance
Finding the right balance of all the elements to achieve your weight loss can be tricky. Changing to a healthier diet, not consuming too many calories, progressively raising your weekly mileage and not getting discouraged all are important. The real pay-off is persevering until you make your weight-loss goal and have incorporated running into your daily lifestyle.
References
- FrontRunner: Beginner Runner Program
- Cool Running: Balancing the Scales
- "Lore of Running"; Dr. Tim Noakes; 1992
- "The Complete Book of Running"; Jim Fixx; 1977
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