Running For Weight Loss Pros And Cons
Running for weight loss has become popular among a lot people nowadays
. Its popularity comes from the common idea that running is a great form of cardiovascular activity especially if you're trying to lose weight. I don't have any objections there. However, I do have objections when people say that running at a steady state is the way to go for fat loss. If this is the case, each person that spends 1 hour on the cardio machines at the gym will look lean. So, in this article, I will discuss why you should steer clear from running at steady state and why you would lose more fat by running at different intensities instead.
Achieving the Lean Look
When we look at nature, animals run when they need to. They usually go from standing or walking and then running really fast when they're running to catch a prey or running away from a predator. As humans, we do pretty much the same thing in real life. We can be walking towards the car and then run back towards our house because we forgot something. In most sports, athletes also don't run at a steady state. In basketball, the players go from their side of the ring to the opponents' ring throughout the whole game while. In football, each player has to run in between yard lines in stop and go fashion. In all these examples, the animals and athletes are mostly lean! These are just a few examples of real life situations where running at a steady state is not favorable. So, if you'd like to take up running for weight loss, do so at different intensities.
Burning More Calories
When your body tries to adapt to a higher intensity or a faster speed, you burn more calories. When your body wants to get all your bodily functions back to normal from breathing harder and pumping more blood, you burn more calories. This means that when run at different speeds, you will burn more calories during the workout and after wards. Let's say you decide to run at 6 miles per hour (mph) for 20 seconds and then decrease the speed to 4 mph for another 20 seconds and repeat both steps a few more times, the amount of calories that you actually burned is more than what the treadmill display says. You're basically turning your body into a calorie furnace when you run at different speeds, higher speeds to be exact. Take note that you shouldn't do this type of running for longer than 30 minutes. There is no use for doing so because the benefits diminish after that time frame.
Have More Fun with Intervals
Let's face it, running at steady state is boring. We also have increase our running time if we want to burn more calories this way. Alternating high speeds with slower ones makes a running workout a lot more fun. Basically, you'll have to pay attention to your time so you can switch your speeds then before you know it, you are done with your workout because just 20 minutes of running intervals burns way more calories over traditional cardio.
You might think that I'm dodging steady state cardio as obsolete but it still has a place in fitness. Perform then only after you've done your intervals and do it for up to 20 minutes. In this way, you can still burn a little bit more calories but not relying on it completely to help you lose weight. You can also choose to do it this way if you don't want to let go of traditional cardio.
To summarize, high intensity intervals are way better at burning calories and fat when you want to take up running for weight loss. If you do it this way, you will burn more fat and calories in less time and have muscular definition just as sprinters like, Usain Bolt, do.
by: Anna Dornier
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