Heather Fell: What is the best way to lose weight through exercise? Well, anything that is active,
It's going to get your heart rate up and your body moving is good. Probably the cheapest arguably the
most effective is running. We've got a strategy to help you use running as an effective tool
for weight loss. [music]
Simply put, in order to lose weight, you need a calorie deficit over a long period of time.
You need to be burning more calories than you're taking on. You can do that by reducing
the amount of calories you eat. You do it by moving more or ideally a combination of both.
This is where running is brilliant, but you have to be aware that just because you're running,
it doesn't mean you can eat unlimited calories. This is a trap that so many people fall into
because yes, you do need to fuel your running, but it's known as compensation effects when people
actually eat more than they needed to and you're not going to be having that calorie deficit.
You can use a calorie calculator to work out a rough idea of how many calories you're burning
when you're running, but you need to remember that we're all different weights, different Fitnesses,
you'll be running at different speeds to someone else and that is very much a rough guide. I would
suggest you ignore that and you try to go by feel. It's really tempting. If you do have a number of
calories, say on your smartwatch or something that you've in theory burned, you think, "Oh, well,
I'll just go and have a muffin that's 100 less." But it's not quite as straightforward as that.
Instead of focusing on the quantity of food and the number of calories,
look to improve the quality of your diet instead. High-quality foods, less energy-dense,
and they'll fill you up better than low-quality empty foods. Try to get rid of as much processed,
fried, and sugary foods and drinks as you can and opt good fiber-rich foods, such as vegetables,
fruits, nuts, quality poultry, and fish. By improving the quality of your diet, you
should be able to eat more to satisfy your growing appetite and still achieve that overall reduction
in calories that you're doing the running for. By improving the quality of your food,
you should be able to satisfy that increased appetite that you've got from running while
still having a slight calorie deficit, which is the whole reason you're doing this running for.
Much like the key to your diet that we've discussed, you need to have consistency.
The same comes with your running. You need to make sure that you're running regularly over
a long period of time. You need to do whatever it is that can help you to keep this momentum going.
Ideally, if you start off by trying to run three times a week, and once you've built up to that,
if you can aim to run three or four times, ideally having one day of running one day off,
so some weeks there'll be three other weeks, there'll be four runs. We need to tackle
the length of time that you're running for. If you are trying to lose weight,
then it's likely that you're maybe heavier than you need to be and as a result,
the running is going to put a bit more stress on your body because after all,
it is a weight-bearing sports. You need to bear this in mind as you're building up your run.
If you're starting out with running, the run-walk method is perfect. This could be considerably more
walking than running in the early stages, so you could be going out for 45 minutes,
but more of that is walking with plenty of breaks between each of your runs. As you become more used
to the time on your feet, then the walks become shorter, the runs become longer, and eventually,
you'll be running nonstop for 30 minutes as you build up to those three to four runs per week.
As you start to lose your weight and get more comfortable with your running,
you might want to progress things a little bit further to make sure you're continuing
with weight loss. You've got two options here. You've got the distance or the length of your run
plus the intensity. If you look at the duration, you might want to move out from 30 minutes
to 40 minutes. Once you're comfortable doing several of your runs around there,
you could look at doing one of your runs per week as a long run, so maybe even up to an hour.
Then you've got intensity to look for. Here you're going to be burning some quite a few
calories during, but quite often your metabolism will stay a little bit higher afterwards, just
like with hit training. For this, maybe choose just one run in a week and do some really fast,
intense intervals to really get your heart rate up and aid with that fat loss. You might have
naturally wanted to avoid the gym. You don't associate that with weight loss, but if you are
increasing your running in length and intensity, it's a good idea to make sure your body is
strong enough for that. Adding in a couple of gym sessions a week can allow you to do more running,
which will allow you to burn more calories and hopefully help with the overall weight loss plan.
As you know by now, running can be a great tool to aid your weight loss. Just make sure that you
have a structure that is sustainable and something that's going to keep you motivated to get out the
door and keep it consistent, as well as managing a diet that compliments your efforts. If you guys
have different strategies or you've found a way that running can really help you with your weight
loss, do let us know in the comments section below. Give us a, like, if you've enjoyed it,
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