Running for weight loss: benefit or harm? What health risks can a beginner expect? About how the body burns excess fat and what is better not to eat before training, read in our material.
Because running is not the best way to lose weight if you don’t know anything about it. The thing is that the results will not come after a half-hour run in the park several times a week. You will run longer and faster – you are easily injured and generally forget about any physical activity for a long time. We will tell you what dangers can await a novice runner and how to escape from extra calories.
The main mistake that many beginners encounter is running without training. Excess weight gives too much stress to the joints, the body is not ready for this, and the joints are even more so. Paradoxical as it sounds, but in order to start running and burning weight, you first need to lose weight and not run.
Start by walking one hour 2-4 times a week, gradually increasing the load – speed up, go on sports walking, do the exercises for a change (remember school physical education lessons). This will speed up the metabolism and start the process of losing weight. After a month of such walks, you can start jogging – for 1-2 minutes, no more, and at a comfortable pace. The rest of the training time, just go.
Running for weight loss: benefit or harm?
Only after you can run a few minutes at an average pace without much fatigue can you start full-fledged runs. The main thing is to prepare the skeleton and its joints for a load in a month or two. However, this is possible only for those who are hampered by only a few kilograms, people with really overweight are not recommended to switch from walking to running without the supervision of a coach – this is fraught with injuries.
As soon as you feel that you are ready to run, and there are no unpleasant sensations and pain in your knees for a month, you can create a simple training program. Make sure that you have running shoes that are suitable for jogging and that you are familiar with the basic techniques of proper jogging (if not, then read about choosing shoes for jogging and jogging on our website).
It is necessary that the sneakers spring well (especially on the heel), when moving, try to land on the middle part of the foot, and for training, choose a treadmill, a soft-covered stadium. Avoid asphalt and concrete, this is very important!
The run should last at least an hour, otherwise it will not make sense. The reason for this lies in physiology: during a run, the body “burns” primarily glycogen from the muscles and liver. This fuel is convenient for him, the processing of which requires a minimum of energy. On average, glycogen stores last for about 40 minutes, after which the body will begin to break down fats. Half-hour runs are certainly useful, but the weight after them does not go away.
Thus, the first 40-50 minutes of running will become a warm-up and warm-up, the real work will to use Human Growth Hormone in USA. Do not try to count kilometers, your goal is not a record of distance or speed. Run at your own pace, not too fast and not slow. Keep an eye on the pulse, it should not go off scale up to 190 beats: more than 150-160 beats per minute means that you need to slow down.
After you get used to running (one to two months after the start), connect interval training. The approximate scheme is 5-1-2, that is, 5 minutes of jogging at an average pace, a minute of acceleration, 2 minutes of the slowest possible run. And so – at least half an hour, the last interval should be jogging as a hitch.
Another variant of the interval scheme is the distance: 100 meters of very slow running, 100 meters of jogging, another hundred meters of fast running, the duration of the interval training should be at least half an hour. If you like to spend more time in the park or at the stadium, and there is no pain after two hours of running, you can include two such interval classes in your workout. Use the marks in the stadium, pedometer or tracker.
The meaning of physical activity in the process of losing weight is to burn more calories than it does. Therefore, from the first training you need to do diet. Surely you heard what “pasta party” is: it’s a tradition for marathon or half marathon runners to eat pasta before the race. But this does not mean that pasta is the best food for the runner, do not confuse professional sports and the desire to lose weight by the summer.
To burn 500 kcal, you will need to run almost 8 kilometers. You will have to forget about the paste until you are so keen on running that you sign up for your first run. Pay enough attention to nutrition, because fitness without a diet and a healthy diet is often simply meaningless.
Summarizing, we can distinguish the basic rules of the formula “run to lose weight”:
- Start running gradually, take care of joints and ligaments.
- Know everything about calories consumed, count carbohydrates.
- Find the right diet for yourself.
- Use interval training.
- Train in comfortable shoes, forget about sneakers and buy suitable sneakers.
- Keep running!