"Run, Forrest Run!’" – Forrest Gump
Who can ever forget that line from the hit movie Forrest Gump, which had Tom Hanks running like there was no tomorrow! His character of Forrest uses running as a means of staying away from trouble in his formative years. Sure, all of us aren’t Forrest Gump, but just like him we can all outrun our weighty troubles.
Why Run?
Running is an excellent form of cardio exercises, as it helps to increase your heart beat rate along with helping you to lose a lot of calories which directly translates to weight loss! Going for a 30 min run, regularly, helps you to build up a strong set of legs with toned muscles along with protecting you from a bevy of diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular diseases.
Moreover with running being considered as an intense vigorous activity, it fits with the description of the 1 hour and 15 minutes of required vigorous physical activity as recommended by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Resources to successfully lose weight.
Why should we run to lose weight?
Running with the wind whipping across our face and the rhythmic pounding of the ground underneath our feet makes us feel good for sure along with helping us to relieve the stress. But what really makes our bodies feel good about running is the fact that it helps to burn more calories as compared to say walking on the treadmill in a gym. Running also serves to strengthen leg muscles such as calves and tendons which get toned in the process.
Also opting for running is a good idea for weight loss, as it a vigorous physical activity which helps to burn more calories as it raises your metabolism and trains your body even more calories.
How do we lose weight when we run?
Most beginners are in a shock if they expect to lose weight the moment they start running, in fact a much bigger shock awaits once they start running to lose weight, in the form of a weight gain! The weight gain is a result of development of muscle in the early days of running for a beginner, once he gets past this slight weight gain, his body begins to burn calories which gets him the expected weight loss.
To go deeper in the science of weight loss due to running, we first need to understand that the body prefers to burn carbohydrates for fuel as compared to fat. This is because fat takes a lot of time to burn and metabolize and contains more calories as compared to carbohydrates, as a result of which the body prefers to store fats and burn carbohydrates when in need of immediate fuel i.e. whilst running.
Running regularly trains the body to rely more on burning fat rather than carbohydrates for fuel purpose. To make it even clearer 1 pound of body fat contains 3500 calories, thereby burning fat leads to a greater weight loss. Regular running helps our body to start burning fat which is where the weight loss occurs! Moreover daily running also ups the body’s metabolism, which means that the body keeps on burning calories even after we have stopped running!
How should I run to lose weight?
The best way to achieve weight loss from running is to use the High Impact Interval Training or HIIT method of running, which includes a combination of sprints and light jogging or running at slow speeds.
This method works because according to recent research it has been proven that running at a constant speed over a period of time, helps the body to adjust itself to that speed thereby reducing the number of calories burnt and slowing down the weight loss. Hence HIIT includes sprints mixed with light jogging to not let the body get accustomed to a pace, which helps to burn more calories and lose more weight.
Another way of losing weight is trying to run as long as you can at least once a week as this will not only help you build up your stamina but also let you burn more calories with the more number of miles that you will cover!
So, now that you know how to run, where to run and most importantly why to run, we are sure that you’ll already be looking out for those old sneakers to put on and get set to go running!
