To shed that stubborn belly fat, you should work your way up to 30 to 60 minutes of moderate-intensity activity four to five times a week. That sounds like a lot, and if you have a busy schedule, it may be difficult to find the time. But that doesn't have to be four to five sessions of running.
Yes, a 30-minute run can contribute to weight loss, especially when combined with a balanced diet and consistent exercise routine. Running helps burn calories and improve cardiovascular health, which are essential factors for weight loss.
Running for 20 minutes a day can indeed be effective for weight loss, but it's essential to approach this like one would a trading strategy--recognizing the cost-benefit balance. That brief period can torch roughly 200 to 300 calories, depending on your intensity and body weight.
Research suggests that slow to a very moderate pace while running may burn a higher percentage of fat in the calories burned during the exercise, but if you run faster during a given time (covering more distance) you burn more calories overall, which will probably have more of an effect on overall fat loss.
For weight loss and fat burning, a combination of steady-state running and interval running works best. Steady-state running at a moderate pace helps burn calories, while high-intensity interval training (HIIT) with short bursts of sprinting followed by recovery periods boosts your metabolism and increases fat burn.
A new study offers clues that could help maximize your efforts. Exercising between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m. has been associated with having a lower waist circumference and body mass index than people who work out during midday or evening, according to a study published Tuesday in the journal Obesity.
Zone 2 – endurance level: Exercising with a heart beating at 60-70% of your maximum heart rate for between 20–40 minutes is a step up that will bring you into the fat burning zone – a level at which you can effectively burn excess fat stored in your body.
Try to start with one to three miles per day if you are new to running. Stay closer to the one-mile end if you don't currently do much exercise. If you hike, bike, or do something similar, you may want to see how you do running three miles a day. As you gain more miles over time, your heart and lungs become stronger.
Burning fat
The speed at which you run affects what your body uses as fuel. If you are taking it slowly, your body can use aerobic metabolism, which depends on a good supply of oxygen from your lungs. This means you break down stored fat to supply most of your energy.
Duke University conducted a study to compare running and strength training for weight loss. Contrasts between running and strength training groups suggested that running decreases both body weight and fat mass significantly more than strength training does.
Activities like running, cycling, and high-intensity interval training (HIIT) burn more calories and fat throughout the body, including the upper belly, lower belly, and obliques. So, while ab exercises can help define your core, it's a holistic approach that will help you lose the fat covering those muscles.
On average, a consistent, healthy rate of weight loss is about 1-2 pounds per week. With regular running and dietary adjustments, most people begin to see changes in four to six weeks. However, this is a very individual journey, and patience is key.
You will have stronger legs from running
When we run, we use all the muscles in our legs, big and small. If you are new to running, you might be surprised by how quickly you start to develop lean muscle in your legs and the speed at which you build endurance.
The calories burned during running depend on body weight, exercise intensity, and duration. For example, jogging at 8 kilometers per hour burns approximately 70-80 calories per kilometer. If you jog for 30 minutes every day, five days a week, it will take nearly a month to achieve a one-kilogram weight loss goal.
And, will running give you abs? “Yes, running can help give you defined abs,” said Todd Buckingham, Ph. D., exercise physiologist. But before you get too excited, it's important to note that running alone isn't enough to improve muscular definition in your midsection.
Pick up the pace to a 6 mph run, and you'll burn between 300 and 444 calories in 30 minutes. Runners who can maintain a 10 mph pace burn between 495 and 733 for that same half-hour run. Changing your running speed can make a difference in the amount of calories burned and weight lost per week.
It's called 80/20 training—essentially, doing light workouts 80 percent of the time and pushing yourself at a challenging level 20 percent of the time.
While the effects of running everyday mean that it is generally not advised, that science does show that frequent running - of up to five days per week - is good for both your body and mind.
As your body metabolizes fat, fatty acid molecules are released into the bloodstream and travel to the heart, lungs, and muscles, which break them apart and use the energy stored in their chemical bonds. The pounds you shed are essentially the byproducts of that process.
Zone 1 and 2 training is important because of the benefits of these workouts. You build endurance, durability, and strength. In addition, these easy training sessions help build capillary pathways that transport oxygen to your muscles and carry waste away from your muscles.