Running to Lose Weight Faster

Running to lose weight is a great activity if you are looking to shed a few pounds which just don't want to leave you alone. It's also a rather inexpensive activity, as you don't need special exercise equipment or gym members ships. All you need is a good pair of running shoes, a sidewalk or road and the gumption to get out of that chair and get moving! Once you start your routine, you can begin with walking and graduate into running, or if you are ready, just blaze right into jogging and running right off the bat. Either way, you will need to develop good nutrition habits to reinforce your weight loss effort. Eventually you are going to want to tweak your running to get the maximum calorie burn and weight loss while running. The next few paragraphs will give you a few good ideas to help running to lose weight.

Once a week, when running to lose weight, run longer than you normally due during the week. I like to make my long run on Saturday, so I can take Sunday off to rest my legs and begin fresh on Monday. If you want to do one long run during the week, I usually try for about 75% to 100% increase in distance from a normal day run. That is, if you run 2 miles a day easily, then your long run should be about 3 to 4 miles to begin with. A good rule of thumb is to increase your long run by about 10% each week. I like to add an extra mile onto the long run, which is a lot more than 10% early , but tapers back to about 10% as get to 10 miles on your long run.

Ten miles might seem like a lot, but really, if you are running 4 miles on your long run on week one, then you should be up to 10 miles within two months, if you increase about a mile each week. If you want to be conservative, you can increase a mile every two weeks if you like. I would listen to my body, and let it determine when it's ready to move up in mileage.

When you start your long run, keep a slower pace than normal. You want a good relaxing run and you want to conserve energy through out the run. If you are pushing yourself to burn those extra calories, you will feel the burn in your thighs the last mile or two. If you don't notice those last few miles are hard, then you are either going too slow, or you can increase your mileage the next week.

When running to lose weight, don't worry as much about time. You are out there to burn the calories, so getting your run over quickly shouldn't be a priority.

I live in Florida, and we have no idea what hills are, at least not here in central Florida. If anyone wants to run hills around here, they head for the causeway over the river. I have a few friends who run it regularly, and when training for a race, I'll pick one day a week and run the causeway just for the hills. That stepping up and up really gets your heart rate going. I love sprinting up, pushing even harder, and feeling that light controlled jog on the way back down.

Have you ever tried a stair climber in the gym? It's hard, but really, it's not harder than being on an actual hill, or even real stairs. I would always suggest running stairs at work or the apartment if you have the chance, if you don't have quick access to hills. The problem with stair climbers in the gym is your body weight does not actually move. If you run up hill, you are constantly lifting your body up, ever so little, but still up and up. That weight is pushed up by your thighs and adds to the work out!

Try a good hill workout once a week if you want to add it to your running to lose weight routines!

Once a week when running to lose weight, and I usually pick Mondays because I just rested on Sunday, run all out as fast as you can. Definitely drop your mileage to about half what you run on a normal weekday. You might only run a half a mile, maybe one or two miles at most. The goal is to push yourself for the whole run. When you first do this, you won't get far. That's okay. Sprint or run hard as long as you can, then lightly jog or walk while you catch your breath and then sprint again. Repeated sprints without too long a rest will help build your natural speed over time. You'll notice in a few weeks your legs natural move faster and you are shaving a few minutes each week off of your long run.

When running to lose weight, this is not where you join the military. Double time isn't a drill Sargent yelling at you to go faster. This is where you run a normal run twice a day. Run it in the morning, and then run it again in the evening. This will rev up your metabolism like a furnace. Again, you will need to get used to doing something like this, so try it once a week, and depending how quickly you recover, you might try it two days the following week.

I'm sure you have a weight goal you are trying to get down to, but you should look forward to some running goals. Pick a 5K race that's a few months off and really push your training. A 5K race is only 3.1 miles, and I bet with some practice your short fast runs could be 5K distances. Sign up for it, and get your family and/or friends to sign up with you. Tell them about your goals and make yourself accountable!