5 Things You Didn’t Know About Losing Weight By Running
Let me know if this looks familiar to you. The season starts and again you face those extra kilos that were here to stay. With experience and accumulated kilometers, you know that losing weight by running is complex gibberish to decipher.
In fact, it is estimated that for every 1% of body fat lost, the running speed increases in the same proportion. Therefore, if we simplify and isolate the weight variable, running speed can improve from 5:00 minutes to 4:51 per km by reducing 3% of body weight in the form of fat. This is equivalent to about 2,400 g for a person weighing 80 kg. Now you want to lose weight by running.
And you are not the only one. The problem is enormous. It is common to come across experienced runners with the same difficulties when it comes to losing weight. Often this story needs a plot twist. You have stagnated. You always do the same thing and your body has become more efficient.
You feel stronger but neither your girth nor your abdominal fat has changed. You are well aware that training plans ignore this specific objective, sometimes presuppose it, and focus on improving the pace and distance covered.
The keys to losing weight running that we present today will not only help you get rid of those extra kilos but will allow you to do it without giving up your athletic goals or squeezing yourself like a lemon training or starving yourself at the table.
Lose Weight Running – Practical Advice
If we are regular runners it is important to constantly vary our training menu. If we always do the same in rhythm, time, and distance we will obtain the same results. The body is wise, in the face of the same activity it will save energy consumption and the scale will remain tremendously lazy.
To lose weight by running, introduce variety, and break the routine with new stimuli through intervals, fartleks, series, high-intensity HITT exercises, strength exercises, or climbs that imply constant body adaptation. It is also important that at all times we complement running or other physical activities such as spinning, the elliptical, or the treadmill with a healthy diet low in fat and varied enough to satisfy your energy demand.
Some examples of training to lose weight:
- McMillan, the one with the famous calculator to calculate race paces, proposes choosing a distance that you usually train and in the last 5 minutes increasing the pace to your best 5km speed.
- Hill training is estimated to double caloric intake. A good option is 20′ warm-up + 10 climbs of 150 meters at 85% of our capacity, recovering the descent at a trot.
- Changes of rhythm to revolutionize the kilos. Warm-up (20′) + 2x 1’30” at a fast pace + 1’30 easy, 4×1′ fast 1′ easy, 4 x 30” fast + 30” easy, 4 x15” fast + 15” easy, + warm-up .
- Mexican Fartlek is a fun and highly effective option: 20′ Warm up 9′ hard, 8′ soft, 7′ hard, 6′ soft, 5′ hard, 4′ soft, 3′ hard, 2′ soft, 1′ to the death, + 10 ‘recovery.
- Circuits: Jumping exercises (high knees, kicks, back squats, ankle jumps) with running intervals at a comfortable pace. For example, we do a 400-meter run, stop and start the exercise routine for 5 minutes. We repeat the sequence up to 5 times. This methodology helps to quickly remove lactate from muscle fibers, increasing the permeability of the membranes. And, of course, it helps to lose weight by running.
To lose weight running it is essential to differentiate the type of physical exercise that we do to replenish some nutrients or others. Aerobic exercise consumes muscle glycogen. The most recommended are complex carbohydrates: rice, potatoes, cereals, whole grains, legumes, vegetables, and some fruits.
Anaerobic, or strength, activities destroy plastic substances in the body. Therefore, amino acids are essential, as well as protein consumption to repair muscle tissue. The recommended foods are beef and pork, fish, eggs, soy, cheese, or milk.
Numerous studies emphasize the proper timing of nutrient replacement. They suggest that for highly effective replenishment carbohydrate intake should take place immediately after activity. This process known as the metabolic window lasts until 30 minutes after exercise. The body is still active and it is the ideal time for the rapid assimilation of nutrients.
Intensity
We know that in the face of aerobic activity such as running, fat burning starts after a long period of exercise (approximately 30, 40 minutes). But, if our ultimate goal is none other than to lose weight by running, should we pass this toll? categorically not.
The solution is found in reducing training time, increasing intensity, and by extension the activity of our basal metabolism during the hours after exercise. This high-intensity methodology is known under the name of HIIT training.
It is true that studies show a proportionally higher fat burning with aerobic work. However, putting quality will provide us with a greater caloric consumption during and after exercise, although with a lower percentage of fat burning in relative terms but higher in absolute terms compared to aerobic resistance work.
And how will we do it? we will dispense with or minimize tedious filming and again we will resort to changes of pace, series, intervals, and short and intense continuous races, but this time trying to hit our threshold over and over again, at demanding rhythms, always higher than 80% of our ability.
Obviously, this option is detrimental to increasing our resistance and possible athletic objectives and is located opposite the successful Lydiard system of preparation for the long-distance runner. This Auckland shoemaker is said to have known everything there is to know about running, able to make anyone anywhere in the world run faster and further, with his understanding of the “what”, “how” and “ why” of the training.
According to his theses, still present and used throughout the world, the mother of the lamb is the conditioning period (base construction) that serves as a prelude to refining or tapering. The volume of KMS and long runs, minimum three a week.
The benefits? of known leftovers, improvement of the circulatory system, oxygen transport increases, the heart becomes bigger and is capable of pumping more blood faster with each contraction, the lungs becoming more efficient, … etc. As your fitness improves, the speed that was previously anaerobic is now aerobic and therefore more sustainable. So it’s all about reaching your best aerobic pace before tackling anaerobic training for competition.
Few are the voices that question this model of construction of “your aerobic house” as a runner, one of them is that of the well-known Italian trainer Renato Canova who advocates the absence of a traditional base period, promoting intensity and extension.
Aerobic efficiency is based on a large number of anaerobic efforts, mixed of course with something typically aerobic. I am preparing another post where we will talk about the peculiarities of this revolutionary model that is not without controversy.
Fasting Training, Rest, And Distribution Of km
Going for a run on an empty stomach, with low glycogen stores, favors the use of fat as an energy source and therefore accelerates weight loss. During years of training I have put it into practice with low-intensity shooting and even so, I have noticed its benefits.
Another option to lose weight by running is to complete the total daily kilometers in two sessions. Although it takes more time, it is easier to run 8 km in the morning and 5 in the afternoon than to do 10 km at once. Apart from the psychological and physical benefits, two metabolic elevations are also achieved.
Resting enough, between seven and eight hours a day, and doing it without interruptions favors the elimination of liquids and prevents hormonal changes that lead to weight gain.
Eat Foods That Burn Fat
Lastly, although it seems like typical advice from a healthy life magazine (which it is), low glycemic index foods such as legumes and most fresh vegetables induce the body to burn fat, both from the diet and from that accumulated in the abdomen. and hips.
About 30 minutes before starting to run you can take the opportunity to have a coffee, tea, or any type of drink that activates the body. This will help you start with more energy and speed up your metabolism right out of the box.
In addition, you always have the option of taking supplements such as L-carnitine. One of the most used among athletes who want to lose weight running.
No more running excuses! Running to lose weight!
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