How Often Should I Jog to Lose Weight?

How Often Should I Jog to Lose Weight?
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Jogging is a great calorie burning exercise. If the weather permits, you can jog outdoors or use a treadmill on inclement weather days. To lose weight, you can begin an exercise program that has you jog frequently throughout the week. If you want to quicken your rate of weight loss, you should also make dietary changes. Reducing your calorie intake and limiting portions helps you reach your goal weight.

Features

According to the Women's Health website from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, you should participate in a minimum of one and a half hours per week of vigorous physical activity. Jogging is considered a vigorous physical activity along with running, tennis and cycling on hills. If you want to lose weight, you should exceed this recommendation.

Time Frame

If you are 160 lbs., you burn approximately 584 calories per hour of jogging at a pace of 5 mph. A half an hour of jogging at the same pace burns 292 calories. If you want to lose weight plan to spend a minimum of half an hour jogging most days of the week. Since it takes 3,500 calories to burn 1 lbs. of fat, this puts you on track for a weight loss of about ½ lb. per week.

Benefits

To get the most results from your jogging plan, aim to increase the time you spend exercising. According to MSNBC, individuals who get at least 60 minutes of exercise per day are shown to be the most successful at losing weight. After jogging for 30 minutes daily for several weeks, tack on a few minutes extra to your time until you reach 60 minutes.

Considerations

When you find the scale stuck, you can try interval training techniques to increase calorie burn. During interval training, you add in short bursts of intense physical activity to help boost the number of calories burned during each workout session. For instance, spend three minutes jogging at a steady pace. Proceed to sprint at maximum exertion for one minute. Repeat this pattern for the duration of your jog.

References

Article reviewed by Jenna Marie Last updated on: Feb 17, 2011

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