How To Lose Belly Fat By Running
Belly fat is notoriously difficult to lose. While other areas of the body become trim and toned with regular exercise, for many people, that excess tummy can prove to be extremely stubborn. However, the good news is that running is one of the best forms of exercise to lose belly fat, and there are even a few small tweaks you can make to your regular running schedule to deliver a sustained fat burning boost.
Can Running Make You Lose Belly Fat
Running is an incredibly effective fat burning exercise. In fact, when it comes to losing weight, its difficult to beat. According to data from the American Council on Exercise, a runner who weighs 180 pounds burns 170 calories when running for 10 minutes at a steady pace. Make that a 30-minute run and that same runner will burn over 500 calories. But long runs alone arent going to help you shed that belly fat. You also need to make dietary and lifestyle changes to shift those problem areas.
Even if youre a regular runner who is watchful of what you eat, its still possible to have belly fat that you just cant shift. In many cases, this can be down to diet. Even experienced runners can make misguided dietary choices. For example, those who exercise regularly tend to eat more protein bars and sports drinks, both of which contain high levels of sugar. Unfortunately, that sugar loves to stay in your body, particularly around the tummy area.
You’re Doing The Wrong Exercises
Those sit-ups arent enough. You also need weight training to build muscle. More muscle means more calorie burning.
That said, if you can only do one exercise, choose aerobic exercise . It works best for burning fat. Make it a habit, and slowly ratchet up the intensity to get the results youre after.
Read Also: How To Get Rid Of Double Stomach
Continue Learning About Exercise For Weight Loss
Important: This content reflects information from various individuals and organizations and may offer alternative or opposing points of view. It should not be used for medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. As always, you should consult with your healthcare provider about your specific health needs.
Will Walking Help Me Lose Weight
Walking can promote weight loss, and it is often quite easy to maintain a walking program, especially since the cost is minor, and a walk can begin as soon as one steps outside ones door. The amount one loses depends upon metabolism, consumption of calories and the type of walking. A ten minute walk daily will not likely result in much weight loss. Walking an hour, five days a week, at a pace of about 2-4 mph can, however, burn quite a few calories.
If you dont plan to change your diet, walking may still allow one to lose weight. Studies usually find that a combination of reduced calories and increased exercise are most effective in promoting weight loss. Walking alone may still provide some weight loss benefits, particularly if your calorie consumption is not overly high to begin with. If you add calories to your diet because you are exercising more, you may not see weight loss benefits.
Walking at 2 mph , a relatively slow pace, burns about 26 calories per 10 minutes. In 30 minutes the benefits increase and the average person burns about 79 calories. Walking at least 30 minutes is considered better than taking three ten minute walks a day because greater time means elevating ones heart rate. As ones heart rate increases, more calories are consumed.
Also Check: Can You Take Vyvanse On An Empty Stomach
How To Lose Belly Fat While Running
One of the traps many runners fall into is thinking that the further they run, the more belly fat theyll burn, but thats not always the case. While long-distance runs are excellent at building endurance and burning calories, theyre not necessarily the best for dealing with body fat. To lose the flab, youll have more success by mixing up your training routine.
- Consider cross-training
Cross-training involves picking a primary exercise, which in this case is running, and supplementing it with secondary exercises such as swimming and cycling, which are both effective at burning belly fat, to improve the gains made by the primary exercise. These secondary exercises should be low impact, to reduce the risk of injury, and should only be done for a relatively short period of time, so no more than 30 to 60 minutes per session.
- Try trail running
A simple way to tweak your running to lose belly fat is to head away from the roads and onto the trails. Although your pace is likely to be slower, trail running provides more of a total body workout to help you tighten up those problem areas. Jumping over logs and rocks, running up and down hills and navigating unpredictable terrain that changes with every step will work your calves, quads, glutes and belly far more than running on a flat road. If you find youve reached a weight loss plateau on the roads, working smarter, not harder, by incorporating some trails could be an effective solution for you.
Ping Toward A Healthier You
In addition to its fat-burning properties, walking is a simple way to improve your overall health. Walking strengthens your muscles and bones, improves your endurance, decreases aches and pains, elevates your mental well-being and prevents a wide range of serious medical conditions. This exercise requires no equipment, making it convenient and versatile, and its low impact leads to less joint pain than high-impact exercises such as running.
References
Don’t Miss: How To Make Your Stomach Thinner
Walking Vs Running: Weight Loss Heart Health And More
Walking and running are both suitable forms of exercise for weight loss and heart health. The benefits and risks depend on a persons goals and current level of health and fitness.
While both activities allow a person to burn calories, lose weight, and lower their risk of heart disease, there is much debate over which is better.
Read on to learn more about the benefits and risks.
Cardiovascular exercise is also known simply as cardio. It often uses major muscle groups in the body, gets the heart pumping faster, and increases breathing rate.
Walking and running are both types of cardio.
Cardio exercises offer
- helping prevent or manage health conditions including high blood pressure, diabetes, and heart disease
- strengthening the heart
Walking First Thing In The Morning Boosts Your Metabolism
Im always looking for ways to work smarter, not justharder. Everyone knows that youll onlylose weight if ultimately you consume less calories than you burn. However, how you do these things, can make ahuge difference in your ultimate results both in how much weight and fat youlose as well as how quickly you do it. Eating 1200 calories of doughnuts is not the same 1200 calories of leanprotein, good fats and fruits and vegetables. Therefore, arming yourself with the bestinformation on how to do this the smartest way will help you lose the weight more effectively. Walking first thing in themorning on an empty stomach is one of the best tips on how to naturally jumpstartand boost your metabolism.
Many years ago, my good friend Natalie turned me on to thistip a brisk walk first thing in the morning beforeeating. She learned this from hertrainer when she was competing in the Miss America pageant. Last year, I came across this same tip from mymother-in-law who was instructed to do this from her physician who specializesin sports medicine and weight loss. Ithought to myself that it was time to really understand the biology behind thistip and why it works.
What is Moderate Cardio? Moderate cardio is an activity thatputs you in the fat burning zone according to your heart rate. The fat burning zone is 60-70% of yourmaximum heart rate.
Don’t Miss: How To Reduce The Size Of Your Stomach Without Surgery
How Can I Get A Six
For most people, getting healthier is the overall goal. If youre looking for really defined abs, you may be surprised to know that ab definition is due more to low body fat than to serious exercise. No matter how strong your abs are, most people have a layer of fat that obscures the muscle. Thats totally normal for most people. Women, in general, naturally have more body fat than men, which makes getting defined abs more difficult.
Its important to be realistic and set reasonable goals for your health and fitness. The movie stars or athletes that you may see with incredibly defined abs usually have a team of nutritionists, exercise coaches, and trainers and can dedicate much of their day to training and eating extremely healthy. Even then, many actors go through unsustainable diets for a specific role that even they cant maintain for long. It is possible to have defined abs as a regular person, but it does take a lot of work. Instead of having a goal to look like your favorite movie star, a more realistic goal for most people is reaching a healthy weight.
How Much Walking You Need To Lose Weight
Jenny Hills, Nutritionist and Medical Writer Health
Walking is one of the safest forms of exercise known today. Depending on how often you walk, you can manage to easily lose one pound per week or more. Think about it, in less than five months you can be 20 pounds lighter without spending hours at the gym and without going on a diet.
While you shed the pounds and inches from your body, you are also toning your muscles and improving your health. Once you learn how to implement the principles of walking to lose weight into your lifestyle, you will surely be hooked on this easy and beneficial exercise routine.
Don’t Miss: How To Burn Fat Around Stomach
Diet For Losing Belly Fat In 1 Week
The goal of this diet is to consume the maximum amount of nutrients with minimal calories, fats and sugars. The following diet tips are recommended when aiming to lose weight:
- Eat six meals a day, once every 3 hours
- Drink at least two liters of water or green tea a day
- Eat a different salad every day and a piece of meat, fish or chicken that fits in the palm of your hand
- Eat two pieces of fruit a day, preferably low-sugar fruit such as berries, kiwi or orange
- Eat two yogurts with probiotics every day day as this will encourage your bodys bowel movements, and thus reduce abdominal bloating
- Eat less salt, and use more herbs for seasoning
- Drink one cup of boldo tea half an hour before lunch and dinner. Boldo reduces gas, and decreases bloating.
Weight loss programs that have lasting effects are those that involve regular physical activity and dietary changes, however, it is possible to see visible results in just one week if you follow the above guidelines. You can also do cosmotic treatments such as ultrasonic cavitation, radio frequency, and lymphatic drainage massage to eliminate excess fluid and fat and promote skin firmness. These treatments can complement this weight loss program.
References
Push The Ground Through Your Feet Rather Than Your Hips
“Pulling through the hips is an energy-saving strategy where you use the energy conserved by your ligaments, which is released by elastic recoil properties of your tendons,” Dr. Kalika reveals.
Even though it’s the correct way to walk, you can still push through your calves, which will expend more energy, therefore resulting in weight loss. However, dont forget to switch back to the normal style of walking, as pushing through the calves for too long may result in injury.
Recommended Reading: What Age Can You Get Stomach Cancer
How To Keep It Interesting
- Walking the same old track can become boring so keep your routine interesting by switching things around.
- Walk outdoors at different parks, different neighborhoods and bring along music to enjoy, motivate and energize you to complete your daily walk.
- Dont let cold winter weather hold you back from your daily walk. Invest in a treadmill and place it in front of a window or television. You can enjoy viewing nature by glaring out the window during your routine or point the treadmill towards your television and savor every minute of your favorite show.
- You can also invite a family member or friend along. Even if they join you only once a week, it is still a beneficial way to mix up your routine. Often, dedicated walkers will become bored with the same old routine, so dont let it happen to you.
- Keep it interesting and switch up your routine as much as you like.
Heres How Long It Will Take You To Start Losing Belly Fat If You Walk Every Day
Walking is a simple, effective way to start losing weight, but if you want to see results, you’ll need to get your steps in every single day and pair them with a clean, healthy diet. That’s true for shedding any unwanted pounds in your midsection, too, since those inches will come off naturally when you begin losing fat all over. “Proper eating will help you reduce belly fat, while exercise can help you keep it off,” Steven McDaniels, an NASM-certified personal trainer and director of fitness and recreation at Beacon College in Leesburg, FL, told POPSUGAR.
Steven recommends walking an hour each day, or splitting that time into two 30-minute sessions, if that better fits your schedule. Just how quickly you’ll see results depends on a number of factors, including your weight and the intensity of your workout. For example, here’s how many calories a 145-pound woman would burn, based on her fitness level:
- Beginner: Walking at 2 to 2.5 miles per hour for 60 minutes a day would burn approximately 200 calories.
- Intermediate: Walking at 3.5 miles per hour for 60 minutes a day would burn approximately 250 to 300 calories.
- Advanced: Walking at 4.5 miles per hour for 60 minutes a day would burn approximately 350 calories.
Also Check: How Bad Is Stage 4 Stomach Cancer
Running Mile Everyday Help Me Lose Weight On My Stomach And Get Ab
Okay, I’m 16 years old. I am probably about 5’2 or 5’3 and weigh about 100 lbs. I’m pretty skinny, but I have excess fat on my stomach. I want a flat stomach and great abs. Would it help me a lot if a ran a mile a day? I have ran a mile every day for the past six days, but if I continue this pattern will I see results soon or does running not help lose weight on your stomach that fast? Please answer if you can, and soon. Also, if you have any suggestions. Thanks!
one, its not fat on your stomach its skin…everyone has it…but if you really want a six pack you should change your diet and watch what you eat, stay away from sweets like candy,soda,ice cream,ect…also stay away from junk food:chips,fruit snack,and stuff thats bad for you. also your going to want to run 3 miles or more and do about 30minute ab workouts everyday and you should see results in a few weeks,but dont kill yourself, if you cant run three miles start small then go farther as you become better. good luck
Running is a great cardio workout to burn fat and also to tone your leg muscles. It won’t really help to “create” the abs you are looking for. If you want abs, you need to do a series of ab workouts. Crunches,sit-ups, bicycle crunches, PLANKS.
If you want an actual layed-out routine, go on youtube and look up ab workouts and find one that suits you.
how much do you want to loose ??cause you can only loose a pound a week .
How Many Steps To Take To Lose Weight
To lose weight the average person needs to take about 2,000 steps in the average mile. One mile burns about 100 calories. This means your pedometer will help you keep track of your steps, how many miles you reach each day and how many calories you burn. It will also help you if you dont have time to exercise. You can simply add steps to your daily routine.
- 1 Mile = 2,000 steps and 100 calories burned
- 1 Pound 3,500 calories
- 1 Pound weight loss per week = 500 calorie deficit per day
- To lose 1 pound per week you need to add 10,000 steps to your day.
If 10,000 steps sounds a lot, here are a few ideas on how to fit all that walking into your busy day .
- Get off the bus early and walk the rest of the way home or to work.
- Park your car further away from your destination and walk the extra distance.
- Walk to the station instead of taking the car or bus.
- Take the stairs instead of the lift.
- Walk the children to school.
Depending on the style or type of pedometer it may have advanced features including keeping track of the number of pounds you lost and how many calories you burned. This information helps you keep track of your progress by giving you a clear picture of what you have physically achieved during your walk.
Due to the important details recorded you will want to invest in a good quality pedometer to assure every step is counted. According to the American Medical Association, wearing a pedometer is essential to long-term weight control and successful weight loss.
Don’t Miss: Does Putting Ice On Your Stomach Help You Lose Weight