How long it takes to lose belly fat by running 3 miles depends on a lot of factors. Although you can make a reasonable estimate of how many calories the workout will burn, your metabolism, lifestyle and eating habits will all play a role in your weight loss effort. Where your body burns the fat will also come in to play.
Losing Belly Fat
To lose fat, you have to create a caloric imbalance by burning more calories through activity than you take in by eating. By running 3 miles, you burn more calories than you would with most other activities -- which can help you lose the fat. When you lose fat, you lose it from your body as a whole. Whether that fat comes off your belly, legs, chest or other parts of your body is difficult to predict.
Calories Burned
How many calories you burn while running depends primarily on your speed and your body weight. A 170-lb. person running 3 miles at a 10-minute-mile pace would burn about 390 calories. Running the same distance at a 6-minute-mile pace would burn about 416. The calories burned will be closer than you might anticipate, because faster people will finish their workouts sooner. Heavier people carry more weight while running, so they would burn more calories in each 3-mile run. Lighter people will burn fewer for the same reasons.
How Fast Will You Lose Weight?
It takes 3,500 calories of extra burn to lose 1 lb. of fat. At that 10-minute-mile pace, a 170-lb. person could expect to run a pound of weight off every 11 workouts or so. However, whether that pound comes off the belly or some other part of the body is anybody's guess. Increased exercise also increases your base metabolism, the rate at which you burn calories during other activities. This can accelerate your fat loss, but again you will lose that fat from your body as a whole -- not just your belly.
Lifestyle
The extra calories you burn by running 3 miles will only help you lose weight if you don't eat extra calories to make up for the extra energy load. This is why your running will work best as a weight loss measure if you combine it with dedication to a weight loss diet. As a general rule, your choice of exercise program isn't as important to weight loss as your commitment to regular exercise and making lifestyle choices that support losing weight.
References
- "Eat, Drink and Be Healthy"; Walter Willett, et. al; 2004
- HealthStatus: Calories Burned Estimator
- "Body for Life"; Bill Phillips; 1998
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