A question for runners

[pkasbohm]

Hey there!

I have a question for all the runners. Have you lost weight just by running and watching your food intake? I would love to lose a bit of weight (40 lbs.) and was thinking about taking up running. If I watch what I eat and start small (1 mile and build up from there) will i be able to accomplish this?

 

[scuba diver]

Weight loss is a simple formula......burn more calories than what you take in.

Running will help burn the calories (approx 150 calories per mile), but that is only part of the formula. You must also watch what you eat.

I have actually gained weight while running a marathon because I fueled up before the race and enjoyed lots of food, rewards, afterwards.

If you cut back on what you intake, add excercise, burn more then what you take in....you will lose weight.

 

[Makdyn]

This has been my plan. I have watched what I eat. I have been having alot of salads with chicken watching my snacking. Then at the gym I walk/jog/run on the treadmill. It is more walking and jogging then running but I am working up to it.

 

[Fitswimmer]

Check out the Couch to 5K running plan thread! There's a bunch of us on there that have started or in the process of a program that takes you from walking to running in about 3 months. Here's the website that tells you about the program: http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/2/2_3/181.shtml

If you do this program and cut your calories, not only will you lose weight but you will build endurance, muscle tone and get a feeling of accomplishment that just can't be beat.

 

[gatorphipps]

I must say, for a woman (and I can only speak for women b/c I am not a man ) You have to exercise and eat right...my DH can do one or the other and lose weight.
I trained and ran WDW 04, 05, and 06...and other marathons and could not lose weight...then I started eating right....used the core plan from WW. I am ALWAYS hungry b/c of my mileage so this plan worked great for me. THe weight fell off.
GOOD LUCK!

 

[k_null81]

I started walking at the beginning of Janurary on the treadmill and have slowly added in spouts of jogging and running and haven't lost any weight. I would say I do an average of 10-15 miles per week @ 4-5 days a week. The past 2 weeks I have amped up my miles and time to 15-20 miles a week @ 5-6 days a week I also recently added in some weights. Mind you since starting this exercise program I wasn't watching my food intake which I know was way more then I should be eating as far as calories go. So now I have decided to alter my diet to a lower calorie intake. I have only been doing it for about a week and a half so I can't report if it has helped or not.

I did lose 35#'s a couple years ago following the above exercise plan and diet. But I believe I exercised a lot more then what I have stated above. To me running and exercising 2 hours+ a day is not realistic for most people and it doesn't interest me to do it anymore that's why I do about 60 minutes on the treadmill and about 20 minutes on weights.

 

[TigH]

90% of weight loss success comes from your diet.

I love to run but I also have limited time for cardio so I do interval training when I run. I do a five minute warm up, then run fast for 1 minute, "recover" for two minutes (a very slow jog) then repeat the cycle so I've run a total of 5 intervals. Then I run for 7 minutes at my warm-up pace.

Check out Alwyn Cosgrove's website and look for his interval training article on Bodybuilding.com (I think the article is called Afterburn).

Good luck!

 

[katerkat]

I think watching what you eat is probably the bigger issue. I'm doing the Couch to 5K (check out our thread! ) as well, and I haven't lost weight on it. But I'm also not watching my diet too well. I'm doing a tiny bit of portion control and trying to drink a lot more water, but that's it. I'm training for an actual race, though, so once I get through that, I'm going to get serious about my diet part of my diet!