Taking up running can always be a good idea if you want to get in better shape and stamina. In addition to being a fairly cheap practice, you can run anywhere and with the intensity you prefer, adapting to your needs and demands. Many people want to start running so they can shed those extra pounds.
However, not everyone manages to see the results as they would like and comes to think that running cannot lose weight. The truth is that doing cardio costs a little more to see the results in your body than doing strength exercises. However, there are strategies and ways to optimize your effort to beat the scale.
In this new article, we are going to tell you how to start running to lose weight with a series of tips that you can start today to start noticing your transformation.
Table Of Content
1. Prioritize strength training
2. run regularly
3. Alternate your workouts
4. take care of food
5. Gradually increase the intensity
6. allow yourself to rest
Prioritize strength training
Cardio is a perfect exercise to warm up the body and activate all the muscles. Therefore, running can be the perfect routine to start losing weight. However, if you want to start running to lose weight and see the results, you must first make yourself aware that you have to combine it with strength exercises.
One option is to run for 20 minutes and then do a weight training or isometric exercise routine on a mat on the floor. However, if you don’t want to give up running and lose weight, you can try running and climbing stairs, putting on obstacles, or incorporating very simple strength exercises while running.
Run Regularly
As in almost all training, the key to success is perseverance. If you have never run before, you must be patient. The first day you may only run 10 minutes and the next day your body is sore. It doesn’t matter, the important thing is to be constant and persevere.
On average, a person should start running 3 days per week and, as time goes by, increase it to 5 days per week to get the body used to it. However, this depends on each person and you yourself will be the one who sets the pace of training.
Alternate your workouts
Another aspect to take into account to start running to lose weight is that the first few weeks of running you will immediately notice that your body burns calories and is training. However, over time, the metabolism adapts to training and stops burning calories as quickly. One of the ways to avoid this bodily habit is to alternate exercises and intensities. Thus, instead of running 40 minutes at the same speed every day, you can try incorporating sprints or intervals.
Take care of food
As with any type of training, nutrition plays a fundamental role so that the objectives can be achieved. People who want to lose weight must burn more calories than they consume. This means that if you have a diet of 2,000 calories per day, your weekly training must be of a higher calorie consumption. However, it is normal that when exercising our appetite increases.
The key is to have a balanced diet that satisfies us but allows us to reach our goals, including more protein and vegetables on the menu and reducing carbohydrates to the necessary amount, without getting too low or eliminating them. Avoid consuming sugars or carbonated drinks before or after training and, if you consume alcohol, increase your training routine to deal with that extra calorie intake.
Gradually increase the intensity
For the same reason that we said before about our body’s ability to adapt, you should be aware that you should always have a feeling of resistance when running. If you have started to train running at a speed of 6 kilometers per hour, it is best to increase the speed a little more each week or, failing that, the duration of the race, so as not to accustom the body to the same type of effort.
You can also try doing intervals within each workout and alternate one kilometer at medium intensity, the next at low intensity, and the next at high intensity, in order to activate your metabolism and speed up fat burning.
Allow yourself to rest
With all that said, common sense should be followed. The body is very wise and knows how to express its needs to you in a precise way. As much as you are aware of losing weight, you must be patient and give your body the rest it needs. No matter how much you have proposed to go running five days a week if one day you feel too tired or weak, take a break to recover and come back stronger.
A good rest will not only help us recover the muscles from the effort, but it will also lower our stress levels, which, in many cases, are direct enemies of weight loss routines.