Can you lose weight running??

Anecdotally from the experience of myself and my friends, there's a law of diminishing returns with running. When you first start, the weight flies off, but as you get more experienced, not only do you adapt and become more efficient, burning fewer calories for the same distance and speed, but you will not burn twice as many running for an hour than half an hour. Unfortunately you'll still work up an appetite!

Myself and several friends have found we put on weight while marathon training, despite attempting to not eat back more than we burned. If you use an HRM and take off what you'd be burning during that time anyhow (sedentary TDEE/24 per hour) you'll get a decent estimate, but even the best HRM calculations are only 75% accurate.

So yes, running will help lose weight - it still burns more calories per minute than many other aerobic exercises - but only when calories are tracked carefully and within certain limits.

As far as other exercise goes, resistance training, especially body weight for lower body such as squats and lunges, will help prevent injuries, as will sticking to a low/non impact exercise like walking or swimming on non-running days.

if you're feeling tighter and your waist is shrinking -- you're making progress. keep it up!

you're probably losing fat if your waist is smaller but building muscle in your legs so you don't weigh any less

Any exercise will help balance the calories you eat versus the calories you burn but you need to realise how many hours you will need to exercise to burn the fat.
Rough rule of thumb - need to burn approx 3,600 calories to burn a pound of fat. 600 calories an hour would be a fairly average slow run. So that's six hours of jogging.

Run for health and fitness. Eat sensibly for weight loss.

Definitely!

Another option to consider, that actually burns even more calories per minute, is power walk (walk as fast as you can while swinging arms like you are running), and it is easier on knees. If you want to use 1-3 lb hand weights while walking, it will add to calories burned, but don't use ankle weights, since it puts strain on knees.

i also put on weight when training for a marathon. i couldn't run those distances without eating more! so much for imagining myself crossing that finish line all lithe and fit-looking. but i had to thank my body for getting me there, so i didn't mind. i'd rather have that extra half a stone and be able to say i'd done a marathaon.

Longer, slower runs will help burn more fat. The faster you run the more your body uses glycogen to fuel your muscle. If you run long and slow (an hour at a slow pace- where you could hold a conversation with a friend) your body will be able to convert fats to fuel. Run too fast and your body burns what is available to keep up with the demand.

Anecdotally from the experience of myself and my friends, there's a law of diminishing returns with running. When you first start, the weight flies off, but as you get more experienced, not only do you adapt and become more efficient, burning fewer calories for the same distance and speed, but you will not burn twice as many running for an hour than half an hour. Unfortunately you'll still work up an appetite!

Myself and several friends have found we put on weight while marathon training, despite attempting to not eat back more than we burned. If you use an HRM and take off what you'd be burning during that time anyhow (sedentary TDEE/24 per hour) you'll get a decent estimate, but even the best HRM calculations are only 75% accurate.

So yes, running will help lose weight - it still burns more calories per minute than many other aerobic exercises - but only when calories are tracked carefully and within certain limits.

As far as other exercise goes, resistance training, especially body weight for lower body such as squats and lunges, will help prevent injuries, as will sticking to a low/non impact exercise like walking or swimming on non-running days.

I would agree with this.

I trained for a mara in April & put on 4lb. I then didn't carry on running much & put on even more!!

I have now gone back to running & hoping it will kick start the weightloss for a while but I do expect it to then plateau again. Running is the fastest burn exercise & I wouldn't give it up but you do need to cross / strength train as well & mix things up every 6 weeks or so as your body gets used to the same exercise. I feel you need to keep surprising it!!!

Good luck though & keep with esp if it makes you feel great!!! :flowerforyou:

I started losing my weight doing all sorts of exercise, then became more serious about running as I got fitter. I'll be honest, I probably should be running more regularly, but even with the running I am doing I expected to lose some more weight. My weight is not budging and I still have at least another stone to lose .However, I feel great when I am running, my stomach is pulled in and my waist has got smaller and I feel fit. I am not overeating although i haven't been counting calories religiously for a while. I'm interested to hear from anyone with advice on this. If I ramp up my running will this help? Should I incorporate other exercise into my routine again? Do I need to bring my calories right down again? Any advice or comments welcome!

i watch the calories ( but not religiously..i usually have a decent deficit) and run 3-5 times a week and losing weight. it's absolutely true that you burn less and less the fitter you become, but I guess I am at a place where I have reconciled my weight goal and eating habits, and running is for fitness and FUN :-)

if i want cake, then i'll eat cake as i know i'm running the next day.

Any exercise will help balance the calories you eat versus the calories you burn but you need to realise how many hours you will need to exercise to burn the fat.
Rough rule of thumb - need to burn approx 3,600 calories to burn a pound of fat. 600 calories an hour would be a fairly average slow run. So that's six hours of jogging.

Run for health and fitness. Eat sensibly for weight loss.

^^ This.

I lost over 90 pounds with a mix of walking, jogging, hiking & elliptical. The key for me is calorie control regardless of exercise. Jogging is currently my favorite because it's good stress relief and I need that lately.

A question: If I have logged myself as sedentary in my profile do I still need to take off the TDEE?

Strictly speaking you should, as the calories MFP gives you is its own calculation of TDEE -500 (if your weekly weight-loss goal is 1lb, for example). But honestly it's not a huge amount.

MFP gives me 1350 calories a day for 1lb weight loss, which is 1850 for maintenance. If I run for an hour and burn 600 calories, I should take off 1850/24 = 77 calories.

But I don't as that's only a 13% variation and that's too much faff when after all there's all that lovely afterburn going on for the rest the day :flowerforyou:

Most of weight loss comes from food: eat healthy and create a calories deficit to obtain weight loss. I would say this counts around 80% of your efforts (not an accurate figure, it's just to give you an idea of how important food is).
Running is good as a tool to help weight loss, as much as any other kind of exercise.
Exercise should be a tool to make sure that you lose fat and not muscle, to improve your overall health (running is very good for your heart) and to create a little bit of calories buffer, so that you can still eat at a calories deficit without feeling miserable.

TL;DR: Yes, but most of the weight loss will come from eating right.

A question: If I have logged myself as sedentary in my profile do I still need to take off the TDEE?

Calculate your TDEE, then subtract 20%. Put this # in MFP and set your activity to sedentary.
Don't eat your cals back.