Will Running Cause You to Immediately Lose Weight?

Will Running Cause You to Immediately Lose Weight?
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Running is an aerobic and cardiovascular exercise that burns calories by elevating your heart rate for an extended period of time. A daily running exercise can make a significant impact to your overall caloric deficit, helping you burn off more calories than you consume during the day. For best results, create a goal for how many pounds you want to burn each month, and devise a running regimen that allows you to burn enough calories to meet your goal.

Running and Weight Loss

The two most effective methods for reducing your body weight are cutting the amount of calories you consume and boosting the number that your burn off with exercise, according to MayoClinic.com. Running is an intensive aerobic activity that allows you to immediately begin burning calories. To achieve the calorie deficit necessary for weight loss, you will need to balance the number of calories you consume from foods and beverages during the day, and how many you burn with running exercise.

Calories Burned While Running

The calorie chart on the Nutristrategy website lists an estimated number of calories burned per running session based on speed and body weight. An average speed of 5 mph, or 12-minute miles, can burn between 472 and 745 calories per hour depending on body weight, according to the chart. A 7 mph or 8.5-minute mile run boosts that number to 679 to 1,070 calories per hour. An intensive, high-speed running session of 10.9 mph, or 11 total miles at 5.5 minutes per mile, can expect to burn between 1,062 and 1,675 calories per minute.

The Numbers

To lose your first pound from running you will need to burn 3,500 more calories than you consume. For immediate results, that means adopting a daily running routine of 30 to 90 minutes to help boost your calorie deficit. For example: to burn 1 lb. a week, you will need to use up 500 more calories than you consume each day. Balance your caloric intake by consuming fibrous foods such as whole grains and leafy greens. These foods provide plenty of nourishing minerals, nutrients and vitamins while keeping your caloric intake low.

Health and Safety Concerns

Talk to your doctor to get a realistic appraisal of your physical fitness level before beginning a running regimen. While it may be tempting to completely cut your caloric intake and overtrain your running, this combination can lead to dizziness, injury or more serious health problems. Talk to your doctor about your weight loss goals and spread out your running program so that you begin seeing results at a healthy rate.

References

Article reviewed by John Hagemann Last updated on: Jun 14, 2011

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