Jogging is one of the most efficient cardiovascular exercises for burning calories. In just 10 minutes of jogging at six miles per hour, a 150-pound person will burn 113 calories. Your weight loss potential depends on how many miles you jog per week combined with how many calories you eat per day. Maximize your weight loss by implementing a dynamic jogging routine to blast through fat quickly. Check with your doctor before beginning an exercise program.
Weight-Loss Goals
Aim for a total loss of 1 to 2 lbs. per week. To lose 1 lb. a week through jogging and dieting, create a deficit of 3,500 calories over the course of the week, or 500 calories per day. Plan to burn 250 calories per day through exercise -- jogging roughly 2.5 miles daily -- and slash 250 calories from your daily meals. If fast weight loss is your goal, create a 7,000-calorie deficit, or 1,000 calories per day. Jogging roughly 5 miles daily and cutting 500 calories from your daily food intake can help you burn off 2 lbs. per week. But if you're new to jogging, increase your weekly mileage slowly to prevent injuries. Build up to jogging 35 miles per week over the course of at least 2 months, and take regular rest days to aid in muscle recovery.
Treadmill Settings
To mimic an outdoor setting and burn the optimum number of calories, choose a hill workout, during which the treadmill automatically adjusts the incline. Jana Klaur, M.D., a research fellow at St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital in New York, says that running hills burns 10 percent more calories for each degree of incline. Setting the incline at level 1 can burn 20 percent more calories in the same amount of time, helping you reach your weight-loss goals faster. Or set the treadmill for an interval run, during which the speed automatically increases every few minutes. Take advantage of 5K or 10K race settings occasionally to gauge your progress over time.
Eat to Fuel Workouts
Replace refined carbohydrates and sugars with healthy whole-grain carbohydrates and fresh produce. Registered Dietician Jackie Dikos suggests that joggers aiming to lose weight should eat 2.3 to 3.2 g carbohydrates per pound of body weight and 0.6 to 0.8 g protein per pound of body weight each day.
To fuel up before a jog, try a meal or snack high in healthy carbs with protein and healthy fat, such as a peanut butter sandwich on whole-grain bread with an apple or banana. Replenish muscle glycogen stores and repair muscle damage within an hour after your workout by eating a snack high in carbohydrates and protein. Good choices include a glass of low-fat chocolate milk or a fruit smoothie with a scoop of protein powder.
Change Your Routine
When your body becomes used to an exercise, it burns calories less efficiently. This can cause weight loss to slow over time. To keep the scale moving in the right direction, challenge your body by changing your jogging routine every few weeks. When jogging at your normal pace begins to feel easy, increase the pace so you're working harder. Tack a mile onto your jog a few times a week to burn an extra 100 calories or more, and incorporate different muscle groups with circuit workouts, where you use different a cardio machines for 10 minutes at a time before moving to the next one.
References
- NutriStrategy; Calories Burned During Activity, Sports and Exercise Chart; 2010
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Healthy Weight Loss- It's Not a Diet, It's a Lifestyle; June2011
- "Runner's World"; Three No-Diet Plans for Getting a Bit Thinner, a Lot Healthier, and Fit Enough to Run a Marathon; Jane Unger Hahn; September 2003
- "Running Times"; How to Lose Weight and Maintain Performance; Jackie Dikos, R.D.; 2011
- Australian Institute of Sport; Recovery Nutrition; July 2009
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