C25K and losing weight?

malama2913
malama2913 Posts: 25
in Fitness and Exercise
I have been searching this forum on losing weight and the c25k and I cant seem to find any results! I have seen people talk about the c25k but not if it helped them lose weight? Right now I am at the very end of the 30DS and have lost inches but hardly any pounds, which is fine because I am seeing the results from the inches. But I am still needing to lose LOTS of pounds and the last months it seems as if I am slowly losing and gaining the same 5 pounds. I am not going down steady like alot of other people that I read on here and I was wondering if the c25k would help with that?? So anyone who has done this has it helped you in the weight loss area?

Replies

  • chase7512
    chase7512 Posts: 76 Member
    I completed the Couch25K and I shedded off the pounds (With help from this site as well). Best part about C25K is once you complete it, it kind of gets you addicted to the joy of running and exercise.

    Within 6 months I burned off 60+ lbs
  • Rue842
    Rue842 Posts: 1
    The c25k was awesome for me! I didn't loose weight because I was in no way watching what I ate. BUT it vastly improved my endurance! When I started I couldn't run for 90 seconds without getting winded, now I can go 20 minutes without stopping. And I'm noticing increased muscle tone in my legs. Now that I'm actually watching what I eat I'm sure the weight will come off.
  • sarahj978
    sarahj978 Posts: 1 Member
    Give it a shot! I did c25K and I think I lost a little over 10 pounds doing it. It helps you run a little more every workout. And since you go through intervals of running and walking, it confuses your muscles.
  • Lynvincible2012
    Lynvincible2012 Posts: 28 Member
    I've started too, (week one, workout 3 this evening) and noticed when inputting my excercises that jogging is burning way more calories than walking, and since the lenght of the jogs is increased every week, that's gotta help!

    Good luck with it! :)

    :flowerforyou: This is the greaaaatttessstt daaaaay! :)
  • thomassd1969
    thomassd1969 Posts: 564 Member
    I am on week 3 day 2 and I have already noticed my measurements going down except my thighs, they have gone up and inch. I dont mind the difference they look much more toned. Good luck.
  • malama2913
    malama2913 Posts: 25
    Were any of you doing any other form of exercise or was it just solely the c25k? Since it is only 3 days a week I was thinking of maybe doing Ripped in 30 the other days? Would like to hear any suggestions on getting the most out of losing the weight?
  • malama2913
    malama2913 Posts: 25
    Bump
  • chase7512
    chase7512 Posts: 76 Member
    Whe I first lost my weight with Couch25k I also would hit the weights (abs and back mostly) every second day.
  • Di3012
    Di3012 Posts: 2,247 Member
    It isn't the exercise itself that causes you to lose weight, what makes you lose weight is eating/drinking less calories than you burn daily.

    Therefore, if you do the C25K and consume less calories than you eat/drink, you will lose weight.
  • Char_marcus
    Char_marcus Posts: 141 Member
    i am watching what i eat and doing c25k and weights on the days i don't run and rest at the weekends
  • mikeyrp
    mikeyrp Posts: 1,616 Member
    Exercise without calorie tracking will not often lead to weight loss because we naturally want to eat more when we do more - it will improve your fitness, tone and endurance though.

    On the other hand - exercise with calorie tracking will help you loose weight more quickly as you have more calories to play with whilst still coming in with a net deficit between what you eat and what you burn.
  • BerryH
    BerryH Posts: 4,698 Member
    Exercise without calorie tracking will not often lead to weight loss because we naturally want to eat more when we do more - it will improve your fitness, tone and endurance though.

    On the other hand - exercise with calorie tracking will help you loose weight more quickly as you have more calories to play with whilst still coming in with a net deficit between what you eat and what you burn.
    ^^^ This!

    Running gives many of us the best "bang for your buck" in terms of calories burned per minute. The calculation of calorie burn for weight and speed is fairly well-established, so as long as you're honest with the speed you go, MFP's calorie burns aren't far off what you get from a heart-rate monitor, so long as you keep pushing yourself.

    Two warnings, running does make you more hungry than most other exercise, and you may find yourself addicted!
  • omearaee
    omearaee Posts: 35 Member
    I have recently started this program and I am really enjoying it. I had forgotten how nice it is to go outside and exercise
  • AmyRhubarb
    AmyRhubarb Posts: 6,890 Member
    I think it helped with my weight loss and of course overall fitness when I added it to my routine. I started at the end of January, and have continued to run 3 days a week, in addition to my DVD workouts. I've dropped another 6lbs since starting - doesn't sound like much, but I was down to wanting to lose less than 10lbs, and you know how stubborn those can be!

    Not sure I can contribute it all to c25k - I also upped calories during that time, so could be the combo of the two. All I know is the fat is disappearing and I've had to buy new clothes again! I loev the c25k program - I went from a non-runner to a consistent runner - ran my first race on Saturday and got my best 5k time and fastest mile ever! And had a blast doing it. Finishing the program and now the race has given me such a feeling of accomplishment! And lowering my body fat percentage is awesome too. :bigsmile:
  • billsica
    billsica Posts: 4,741 Member
    Exercise without calorie tracking will not often lead to weight loss because we naturally want to eat more when we do more - it will improve your fitness, tone and endurance though.

    On the other hand - exercise with calorie tracking will help you loose weight more quickly as you have more calories to play with whilst still coming in with a net deficit between what you eat and what you burn.
    ^^^ This!

    Running gives many of us the best "bang for your buck" in terms of calories burned per minute. The calculation of calorie burn for weight and speed is fairly well-established, so as long as you're honest with the speed you go, MFP's calorie burns aren't far off what you get from a heart-rate monitor, so long as you keep pushing yourself.

    Two warnings, running does make you more hungry than most other exercise, and you may find yourself addicted!

    ^^^ This. I just got the endurance, and felt great running. I needed to watch what I put in my mouth to drop pounds.
  • Jjyoung0314
    Jjyoung0314 Posts: 1
    How did you guys input yourC25k workouts into my fitness pal? Dog I have to input running, walking, and figure how much time I did eAch?
  • AmyRhubarb
    AmyRhubarb Posts: 6,890 Member
    How did you guys input yourC25k workouts into my fitness pal? Dog I have to input running, walking, and figure how much time I did eAch?
    I have a HRM, so I logged everything by that. I think people who don't usually figure the running & walking portions and log the time for each.
  • Phx99
    Phx99 Posts: 69
    I was wondering about this too. I started C25K, I do it almost every day, and I noticed I'm ALWAYS hungry. Not good for watching my caloric intake for sure. Anyone know of any healtier, low cal snacks to help with this?
  • agdyl
    agdyl Posts: 246 Member
    I think it depends on the pace - I just did one and if I went pretty mellow, I didn't get too hungry, but if I treat the intervals as high intensity intervals - I'm STARVING afterwards.

    I've lost weight while doing it but I don't know that I'd say I lost weight BECAUSE of doing a C25K. The benefit to me was more that my knees have a lot of old injuries and the C25K app I was using was pretty helpful in keeping me from overdoing it, because some days I felt like I could run a lot more, but if I did too much more than I had built up to, I'd hurt from it....
  • rduhlir
    rduhlir Posts: 3,550 Member
    OP: I don't account my weight loss to my running. Running helps create the bigger deficit so that I can eat more to fuel my runs and still lose weight, but the lost weight I will give credit solely to counting calories and maintaining a calorie deficit. So yes you can lose weight with C25K, but you will still have to maintain an overall calorie deficit for that weight loss to occur.

    For those wondering about the hunger feelings. That is your glycogen being used during your runs. I combat this by having some sort of carb fuel before a run...like a banana, fruit bar, or something like that. Something with a nice small shot of carbs to help provide some easy access fuel for my body to use. The body will try to avoid using the glycogen stores if it can.

    For the measurement. You can use a HRM or just do the general 100 calories per mile.
  • arronp76
    arronp76 Posts: 20 Member
    I am only on Week 1 Day 2 but to log the exercise I created my own on MFP (called it C25K) and added the minutes and Cals burned from what the app (RunDouble) said.
  • Phx99
    Phx99 Posts: 69
    Everywhere I read the basic same stuff...gain a bit of weight, but lose inches - probably due to muscle gain. I know I feel my legs more now (muscles ache a bit due to the runs) but it's a good ache. I'm sure my legs will get a bit larger, but as long as it's toning and not just gaining fat, I'm ok with that.
  • wilsoje74
    wilsoje74 Posts: 1,720 Member
    The program will not help you lose weight if you are eating too much. It's not a huge calorie burn either (200-300 cals per session I'd estimate).

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