Running is among the most popular and practiced sports in the world. In the United States, only about 60 million people are engaged in running. And Approximately 80 percent of American runners continue to run to stay healthy or burn fat. Fat, particularly Belly fat, has also been associated with high blood pressure, high cholesterol, high blood sugar, and diabetes.
The great news is that you already possess the most helpful tool for burning that bad-news belly fat: a pair of legs. The key is doing a variation of exercises that develop your fat-burning engine, increase your metabolism and the generation of fat-burning hormones, suppress your appetite, and support you in burning more fat and calories all day long. Yes, it is possible, and you can do all that.
This article explains how running burns fat. After reading this article, you will be able to get started on your journey to losing weight and finally burning that fat.
If you are looking for motivation to join the 80 % of runners, I encourage you to read the top 50 powerful running motivation quotes for a new YOU!
Table of Contents
Does Running Burn Fat or Does Running Reduce Belly Fat?
Because running burns more calories than most exercises. Burning fat requires you to burn more calories than you consume, and exercise can help you accomplish it. A study shows that running helps you burn more calories than most other types of exercise, mainly because it requires many various muscles to work hard together.
Another study observed that moderate-to-high aerobic exercise like running could reduce belly fat, even without modifying your diet.
A study of 45 healthy but inactive females observed that high-intensity interval exercises three times per week significantly lose weight and reduce body fat and belly fat compared to regular pace workouts or no training.
Can You Lose Weight By Running?
Several studies confirmed that you can lose weight by running; you must follow a training plan and clean up your diet. In this article, you will find a 4-week sample training plan for beginners and suggestions to clean your diet to help you lose weight by running.
A study from the National Weight Control Registry (NWCR) followed 887 men and 2,796 women between 1993 and 2004 and found that most individuals who lost weight and kept it off were physically active.
Many types of exercise can be effective for burning fat and weight loss; however, running is among the most effective.
In a 2012 study, Paul Williams from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory observed runners were leaner and lighter than individuals who did similar amounts of any other type of exercise. The main reason appears to be that people typically burn more calories per minute while running than they do when swimming, biking, or any other physical activity.
Regular exercise, such as running, also boosts your resting energy expenditure, which is the rate at which you burn calories when the training is over, and you are resting. Research from Harvard supported that resting energy expenditure remains elevated as long as you regularly exercise at least three days a week.
Walking briskly for two miles, biking uphill, or even standing up instead of sitting down are the kinds of vigorous activities that can stimulate your metabolism recommended by Harvard experts.
How Can You Lose Weight By Running?
When it comes to losing weight, it is hard to beat running. Running is one of the most effective ways to lose weight and burn belly fat.
If you are already running, great, keep at it. If you haven’t started running yet but are interested in losing weight, here are 8 ways to use running to lose weight and burn belly fat.
Remember to lose belly, and you must be committed to adopting a proper nutrition program. Focus on the 32 foods that burn belly fat fast, and check out these 32 effective exercises to lose belly fat for men and women.
A study found that recreational running was associated with weight loss, and regular running supports healthy weight maintenance.
1- Running Burn Calories Even When You are At Rest
Research shows that running leads to greater weight loss, possibly because your resting energy expenditure stays higher after your run.
In other words, high-intensity workout such as running stimulates more “afterburn” than low-intensity exercise.
A study in young male subjects found that vigorous exercise for 45 min increased post-exercise energy expenditure for 14 h.
2- Run Regularly
When you start running, aim to run regularly, three times a week, and then slowly increase the volume to four or five times a week.
Check out these 16 amazing and easy ways to motivate yourself to run regularly.
In general, the more you exercise, the greater the results will be. Also, make sure to listen to your body; if you feel like taking a break, take it.
3- Focus Strength Training
Unfortunately, it is difficult to lose weight or burn your belly fat by running alone.
In addition to your running training, you should add at least one strength training workout per week.
4- Add Variety to Your Training Routine
In the beginning, you can get good results with short, easy runs. However, your body will quickly adjust to this training stimulus and build up reserves.
Harvard Health Publishing noted that regular exercise increases the energy you burn while exercising, therefore helping you burn fat.
To avoid this situation, you need to add variety to your training routine and not allow your body to adapt to your workout. By mixing up your training, you force your body to keep adjusting. As a result, it will improve your performance and boost your metabolism.
A good rule of thumb is never to do the same workout twice back to back.
5- Increase The Intensity of Your Workout
Any engine that is running at full speed will burn a lot of fuel. Picturing the fat-burning mechanism during an intense running session as an engine is an excellent way to understand how running burns fat.
Another study supported that high-intensity aerobic exercise training like running helps reduce visceral fat – known as belly fat in elderly, overweight adults.
Another group of researchers found that High-Intensity Exercise Training would be more effective than Low-Intensity Exercise Training in running burn fat in obese women.
A vigorous interval workout requires a lot of energy. While it is true that the percentage of fat burned in the metabolic process is quite high during long slow runs, the total daily energy expenditure, and thus the number of calories burned, is comparatively low due to the low intensity of the workout.
In the case of high-intensity running exercises, like intervals, the percentage of fat burned in the metabolic process is significantly lower. Still, the total daily energy expenditure and the calories burned are many times higher.
7- Rest
Your body needs time to adjust to all the various training stimuli. Therefore, take care of yourself by resting at least one rest day per week.
On your rest day, ensure you get lots of sleep: it affects all the metabolic processes in your body.
8- Do not Forget Nutrition and Recovery
Since you are looking to burn fat while running, you need to ensure that your body torches more calories per day than it intakes. In other, you need a proper balance between and adopt a good ratio of exercise and a moderate diet.
People who focus on only one of the factors will find it hard to lose belly fat and maintain their ideal weight.
But wait…..How Do You Start Running?
Running is one of the cheapest sports that you can start anytime and anywhere.
Here are 11 simple tips to start running when overweight and out of shape.
Before you start, ensure you have good running shoes, a comfortable top, a water bottle, running shorts, tights, or comfy pants.
Additionally, it is recommended that women wear a sports bra while running to reduce pain.
Do not forget reflective gear if you are planning to run early hours or late at night to help you prevent any accidents.
- Start With Walking or Alternate Walk and Runs: Compared to running, walking is easy on your bones, muscles, and joints of the lower extremities. However, walking stimulates adjustments that make these areas more muscular and resilient. It makes walking a great tool to prepare your body for running.
- Your first workouts may consist only of walking or a mix of walking and running, depending on how your body is ready for long runs. As time passes, you can slowly shift to running until you are comfortable doing straight runs.
- Aim to Run Every Other Day: Allows for enough recovery time between runs for your bones, muscles, and joints require time to recover from and adjust to the stress of running. For most beginners, one day is insufficient time for these tissues to recover. Therefore, try to limit your running plan to every other day for at least the first several weeks of your running program.
- If you want to exercise more regularly, add walks and non-impact workouts, such as cycling, between run days.
- Increase Your Distance Slowly and Gradually: Avoid changing training programs too much at once, or you may end up overtrained and sore rather than losing weight and burning belly fat. For instance, if you have trouble adding run miles, add walking before and after your run instead. The 10% rule is excellent for slowly and gradually increasing your distance.
- To apply it, avoid increasing your total running distance or time by more than 10% from one week to the next.
To help you get started, follow this four-week sample training plan for beginners.
Four-Week Sample Training Plan For Beginners
If you want to enjoy the benefits of running, here is a four-week example of a gradual way to ease into a running program:
Try alternating between running and walking as a beginner, increasing the minutes spent running every week.
Week One
- Monday—begin with an effortless 25-minute walk
- Tuesday—rest or do non-impact cardio (weight lifting, swimming, biking, yoga, etc. ) for 25 minutes.
- Wednesday—walk for 30 minutes.
- Thursday—rest or do non-impact cardio for 25 minutes
- Friday—walk/run 5x (walk 5:00 minutes/run 2:00)
- Saturday— rest or do non-impact cardio for 25 minutes
- Sunday—Rest day
Week Two
- Monday—walk/run 6x (walk 5:00 minutes/run 2:00)
- Tuesday—rest or non-impact cardio for 30 minutes
- Wednesday—walk/run 7x (walk 4:00 minutes/run 2:00)
- Thursday—rest or non-impact cardio for 30 minutes
- Friday—walk/run 8x (walk 4:00 minutes/run 2:00)
- Saturday—rest or non-impact cardio for 30 minutes
- Sunday—rest day
Week Three
- Monday—walk/run 7x (walk 3:00 minutes/run 1:00)
- Tuesday—rest or non-impact cardio for 30 minutes
- Wednesday—walk/run 9x (walk 1:00 minutes/run 2:00)
- Thursday—rest or non-impact cardio for 30 minutes
- Friday—walk/run 7x (walk 3:00 minutes/run 1:00)
- Saturday—rest or non-impact cardio for 30 minutes
- Sunday—rest day
Week Four
- Monday—walk/run 7x (walk 2:00 minutes/run 5:00)
- Tuesday—rest or do non-impact cardio for 35 minutes
- Wednesday—walk/run (walk 6:00/run 25:00/walk 5:00)
- Thursday—rest or non-impact cardio for 35 minutes
- Friday—run for 30 minutes
- Saturday—rest or do non-impact cardio for 35 minutes
- Sunday—rest day
Clean up Your Diet
To lose weight by running and reduce belly fat, it helps to keep a daily calorie deficit. In other words, you need to burn more calories than you eat each day. There are two ways to accomplish your weight loss: Eat less and move more.
Running is an excellent form of exercise to maintain a calorie deficit by increasing the number of calories you burn. You can boost your calorie deficit and your rate of weight loss. Running may also help suppress appetite.
A study observed that running may reduce your appetite after a workout.
People’s appetite responses to exercise are different. Running and working out have little effect on hunger in some individuals, yet makes others hungry.
If running increases your appetite, try to increase the quality of the foods you consume. The truth, most of us do not suffer from eating too many calories, but rather from eating too many empty calories.
Before you try to cut calories, expert sports nutritionist Matt Fitzgerald, author of the book “The Endurance Diet,” suggests adjusting your diet to eat better than you were by cutting back on cookies, white bread, and anything processed. Substitute the junk with more fruits, vegetables, and lean proteins and observe what happens.
You will likely see excellent results and feel better just by adding more high-nutrient foods, and you will naturally cut calories when you make the change.
At the beginning of your running for weight loss journey, make a simultaneous effort to consume fewer foods from the right-hand column (red) and more from the left-hand column (blue).
A group of researchers from Aarhus University in Denmark found that new runners who ran more than 5K (3.1 miles) per week for one year without changing their diets lost an average of 8.4 pounds (3.9 kg) while new runners who also improved their diets lost an average of 12.3 pounds (5.6 kg).
High-quality foods are rich in macronutrients, micronutrients, and fiber, and they are less energy-dense and keep you full than low-quality and processed foods. Also, they fill you up with fewer calories.
And then…..How to Stay Motivated To Keep Running For Weight Loss
After completing your first month of running for weight loss, you might be able to run for an average of 25 to 30 minutes.
Adhering to a dedicated running plan will help you attain long-term healthy lifestyle goals during your running for weight loss journey.
The trick to motivating yourself to run regularly is to keep your running for weight loss journey fun, so you will not be tempted to make any excuses to avoid your training plan.
Keep your training plan interesting by changing your running route every few weeks or adding in different types of non-impact cardio such as yoga, swimming, biking, at home effective exercises to lose belly fat for men and women.
Running with a family member or a friend that challenges you can hold you accountable and gives extra safety if you plan to go for your runs during the early or late hours of the day.
Signing up for your first race maybe a 5k, 10k, or even a marathon when you feel comfortable can also provide you with additional motivation for running for weight loss and keep you focused.
Wrapping Up
Running for weight loss is a great way to get back in shape and burn belly fat. Running burns a lot of calories, and you might continue to burn calories long after a workout. It also may help suppress appetite.
Unlike various other kinds of exercise, running requires little equipment to no equipment, and you can do it anywhere. However, one of the best ways to lose weight is a combination of running, targeted strength training, and proper nutrition.
Now, it is time to take action by using running for weight loss to optimize your weight loss.
