The Myths Surrounding Running & Weight Loss for Beginners

Category: Weight Loss |

A beginner looking to lose weight and tone his body is most likely to look at running or jogging as the best form of exercise. The primary reason for this would be the longstanding association running has had with health, fitness and weight loss. To our mind running and weight loss are almost inseparable. But, does that hold true for a beginner as well? Sorry to burst your bubble, but no!

Contrary to the popular notion, a beginner would not benefit from his running schedule for weight loss. There are several reasons for this. Before we go into the details, let’s understand a simple concept first. One pound of fat contains 3,500 calories. A 150-pound person would typically burn 100 calories per mile. By that account, you would have to run about 35 miles in order to drop just one pound of fat. And, here we aren’t even talking about the increase in diet that’s bound to come about after so much rigorous activity.

Simply put, a beginner will have to do a lot of running in order to be able to burn fat. In addition to intensity of the workout, he would also need to run regularly to make visible dents in his weight loss efforts. And by regularly I mean 5-7 days a week.

As one can imagine, these stringent requirements for weight loss and running, make it quite difficult for a beginner to cope up with. Eventually, in the long run, this form of exercise can become counterproductive with runners losing motivation in the absence of tangible results. That is if they don’t end up exhausted, injured or sick before that.

So, you figure “If my running schedule for weight loss included slow runs for longer periods of time that would definitely help lose weight.” Sadly enough that doesn’t work either. Going long and slow is not an effective workout. You’d be better off doing short bursts of high intensity exercises since that burns more calories. As a bonus, research proves that such short high intensity workouts help reduce fat from the abs.

Now, let’s move on to the most endearing myth related to running and weight loss – the famous “after-burn” theory. The theory states that runners have such a high metabolism that they continue to burn calories even after their workout is over. While it is true that an athlete’s resting metabolic rate is pretty high, that’s only because of the intensity and extensiveness of the workout he does. For the average person like us after-running calorie burn is nothing short of a joke. Let me explain why.

Let’s say that it takes you around 12 minutes to run a mile and you exercise for about half an hour. This will definitely boost your resting metabolic rate but only for about 20-30 minutes, burning all of 12 extra calories. Increase this intensity by around 75% and exercise for around 45 minutes you still end up burning not more than 30 calories. The figures don’t change considerably for long runs either.

In the end weight loss and running make an unlikely pair for a beginner, who’d gain more by turning to sustainable forms of cardiovascular exercises, such as cycling, swimming, and brisk walking. If you still enjoy running, do it by all means. It definitely adds to the overall health and fitness of your body and goes a long way to improving your cardiovascular capacity and boosting your mood. But do so knowing exactly why you are doing it, not because you’ve been conned into believing it’s the best way to lose weight for a beginner.