Can you lose weight running??

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Givemewings
Givemewings Posts: 864 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
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!
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  • Givemewings
    Givemewings Posts: 864 Member
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    Anyone?
  • BerryH
    BerryH Posts: 4,698 Member
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    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.
  • waterwing
    waterwing Posts: 214 Member
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    Running is good and definitely helps with weight loss.

    I have found that when I get in a groove and run the same miles at the same speed for about the same time every day.. my weight loss slows down. You need to mix it up a bit.. go harder, faster, longer so your body doesn't get used to it. Some days do sprints, other days go long.. variety is important.

    There are some rather chubby marathon runners out there so obviously it's not a quick fix to get skinny but running plus cross training things (weights) and a healthy diet.. should work wonders!
  • Susan_Rae_1
    Susan_Rae_1 Posts: 154 Member
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    if you're feeling tighter and your waist is shrinking -- you're making progress. keep it up! :)
  • NdBuk
    NdBuk Posts: 25
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    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,

    Hang on - take off sedentary? I always assumed these exercise trackers / HRM.s etc tracked the additional calories burned by the exertion of the exercise rather than the total for that time period.
  • aphid
    aphid Posts: 47
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    you're probably losing fat if your waist is smaller but building muscle in your legs so you don't weigh any less
  • darrensurrey
    darrensurrey Posts: 3,942 Member
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    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.

    From anecdotal evidence (ie talking to many runners and cyclists), I've found this to be true. Indeed, to start off, it's a great way of burning fat but in order to get to a size you want, and not have your body adapt to become more efficient, I think you need to run at least 50 miles a week, which is something most people cannot afford the time to do. (For cycling, you need to be doing at least 100 miles a week.)

    I'd be interested to see any research done on the subject.

    (Obviously, 50 and 100 are arbitrarily high values and may vary according to individuals but you get the idea.)
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    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.
  • NocturnalGirl
    NocturnalGirl Posts: 1,762
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    If you are in a calorie deficit then yes.
  • VictoriaWorksOut
    VictoriaWorksOut Posts: 195 Member
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    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.
  • chosengiver
    chosengiver Posts: 1,493
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    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!
    ^^^I TOTALLY agree with this!!

    I've been running for about 12 yrs. I've had a couple of injuries which set me back a little.
    This yr, I ran my 1st 1/2 Mary and am presently training for my 2nd (December 1).
    I can say this about myself ONLY--running has only taken me so far with weight loss--then, it STOPPED!
    I've been the same weight for 15 months, despite running and weight training--I know some of it is muscle--I can see them.
    I stopped relying on the scale weight & just started using my clothes and a tape measure as a guide to assist with how much progress I've really made in this journey.
  • ooshlet
    ooshlet Posts: 18 Member
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    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.
  • darrensurrey
    darrensurrey Posts: 3,942 Member
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    In addition to the above post I made, on a personal note, I never, ever, EVER run for ANYTHING. And I refuse very strongly to do any Long Steady Distance exercise since earlier this year, I noticed that when I did it, my body started storing fat. If my friends ever ask what exercise to do, I advise them to stay away from running (let's face it, it's not running, it's jogging as you never see non-pro runners going at a decent pace) or cycling.

    Nowadays, I only do HIIT (in various forms whether on a gym bike or with lumps of metal) for cardio purposes. If you insist on putting on running shoes, sprint and nothing less.

    The result of me never doing LSD? I weighed myself yesterday and found I was 5kg below my target weight, despite increasing in strength over the last 6 months.
  • Givemewings
    Givemewings Posts: 864 Member
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    Thanks guys.

    A question: If I have logged myself as sedentary in my profile do I still need to take off the TDEE?
    An observation: 50 miles of running a week is an awful lot!
  • sarafil
    sarafil Posts: 506 Member
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    What some others have said: your body does adapt as you get better and more efficient at endurance type activities (like running), so you may see that weight loss slows down. It is also difficult, at least for me, to do something like marathon training and eat at a calorie deficit. I actually gained weight while training for a half marathon that I ran in September...I am now focusing on strength training to try to lose some of it. :) If you want to run for weight loss, I would suggest a lot of fartleks to get some interval training.
  • DaveC29
    DaveC29 Posts: 232 Member
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    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.
  • wrevhn
    wrevhn Posts: 864 Member
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    Any activity thats not sitting or sleeping, actually moving, can help with weight loss. :)
  • Dragonfly1996
    Dragonfly1996 Posts: 196 Member
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    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:
  • chedges9090
    chedges9090 Posts: 208 Member
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    So, I love the running too. (as you know). So, I say keep it up. It is good for maintaining the weight---and has so many other beneficial factors (e.g. heart). I would switch it up -- or add- other things. Have you tried Spinning- AMT- ? And, weight training is really important. But... in weight training-- keep your heart rate up also. When I had a PT-- they made sure I was jogging in place in between sets-- etc. Moving quickly from one exercise to another. So, don't forget that as you weight train. You are doing a fantastic job!!! And, for my 2 cents--- don't quit running!!
  • bluefox9er
    bluefox9er Posts: 2,917 Member
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    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.

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