Many people choose running as an exercise to lose weight and get in shape. However, running does not guarantee weight loss. It requires patience, perseverance and hard work allied with a suitable nutritional plan to ensure you eat enough calories to fuel your running and keep your metabolism functioning optimally.
Considerations
Your inability to lose weight despite running could be due to a number of reasons.
You may not be running frequently enough. The distance you cover and the time spent on each run may not be sufficient to burn enough calories and metabolize fat as energy. Alternatively, you may not be running with sufficient intensity to spark a change in your metabolism, which may increase your capacity to burn fat when not exercising.
You also not be eating enough to provide energy for your running, This causes your body to conserve energy and fat and slows your metabolism, sabotaging your efforts to lose weight. On the other hand, you may be eating too much despite your exercise efforts.
Guidelines
Run four to six times a week, for a minimum of 30 minutes each run. A pace which allows you to maintain a conversation gives you a low- to medium-intensity run at 60 to 70 percent of your maximum heart rate. This will burn calories and use fat as energy. To calculate your maximum heart rate, subtract your age from 220. Use a pedometer to monitor your heart rate as you run.
Increase Workload
Increase your workload as you get fitter and stronger to ensure your efforts result in continued weight loss. Gradually increase the distance and time you spend running to burn more calories. Alternatively, increase the intensity of your run by increasing your speed and covering the distance in less time. Include cross-country or rough terrain running into your routine. Running on uneven surfaces requires a greater energy expenditure and will help accelerate your weight loss.
Interval Training
Increase the intensity of your running with high-intensity interval training. Introduce short 30- to 60-second sprints into your usual running cadence. The increased intensity and energy expenditure will cause you to shorten your run, but post-exercise, it will blast your metabolism into a super-fast fat-burning zone. Do intervals two to three times a week.
Nutrition
Limit refined carbohydrates such as candy, doughnuts, cakes, muffins, chips, white rice and breakfast cereals in your diet. Drink less alcohol and sodas. These cause an insulin surge, which deposits the excess energy in your body as fat. Restrict your carbohydrates to complex carbs such as oats, whole grain rice, quinoa, potatoes, sweet potatoes, whole-grain bread and yams.
To accelerate weight loss, eat complex carbs only twice a day, particularly to provide energy on running days. Eat plenty of fruits and vegetables and protein from sources such as lean cuts of meat and poultry, fish, whole eggs, beans, lentils and legumes.
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