Jogging is one of the best activities to encourage weight loss because it efficiently burns calories, improves your aerobic capacity and boosts your endurance level. Depending on how fast you jog and how far you go, you could burn 800 calories per hour or more. Combining regular jogging sessions with a low-calorie eating plan will result in even faster weight loss.
Calories
Jogging burns significantly more calories than walking and not quite as many as running. According to MayoClinic.com, if you weigh 160 lbs., an hour of brisk walking burns close to 300 calories, jogging at 5 mph burns nearly 600 calories, and running at 8 mph burns almost 1,000. Burning 3,500 calories is equivalent to losing about a pound of body weight, so if you keep your caloric intake constant, jogging for an hour per day could help you lose more than a pound per week.
Impact
It's important to keep in mind that one of the reasons jogging is so effective at aiding weight loss is because it's a high-impact activity with a vigorous intensity. It's difficult to keep up a steady jogging pace over time, and it's not safe for all beginners to jump right into the exercise and attempt an hour-long jog if they haven't ever done more than a fast walk. Try easing into jogging at first by alternating five-minute walks with 15- to 30-second jogs until you're more comfortable jogging for longer periods of time.
Machines
You can also lose weight by using fitness machines, such as treadmills and elliptical trainers, for your jogging workouts. MayoClinic.com reports that, if you weigh 160 lbs., jogging on a stair treadmill burns more than 700 calories per hour -- without the incline, the calorie burn is not as efficient. Elliptical trainers burn about the same number of calories per hour as jogging on even ground, although they are a lower-impact way of exercising because they don't strain knees and joints as much as jogging does. In a 2010 study of four elliptical trainers of varying costs, the American Council on Exercise reported that all provided similar calorie-burn totals.
Interval Training
Making your jogging sessions into interval training workouts may boost your calorie burn. MayoClinic.com defines interval training as "alternating bursts of intense activity with intervals of lighter activity" and notes that it burns more calories than normal workouts. To make use of the strategy, try alternating five-minute periods of jogging at your normal pace with 30- to 60-second bursts of sprinting at your fastest speed possible. On a treadmill or elliptical, you can alternate the periods of normal jogging with short intervals set at an incline.
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