The majority of us will begin Running because of its ease and affordability, as well as it being an excellent way to get into shape. Pounding the pavement then eventually turns into an excellent lifestyle choice for many to enjoy.
There’s a long list of definitions why people decide to run in the pouring rain, the hot blistering sun, or at 5AM in the morning. You see them out there, and at times you wonder why, but they don’t care.
If you on occasion enjoy a chocolate bar, drink beer, or have the odd burger, then running is an excellent way to counteract the additional calorie intake. While you should be tracking what you eat, the miles that you run on a daily basis compensates for packing on that fat.
Running Compensates For Fat Intake
For most, the biggest motivator for running is to maintaining their weight. Since there are numerous accounts of how to optimize the fat burning process, as a result, there’s an abundance of weight-loss techniques which allegedly turns slow burning metabolism into a fat burning furnace. Running is one of them.
So once you’ve decided to find the time to run on a continuous basis, you’ve finally found the proper running shoes for your body type, the pain in your hips and legs becomes tolerable, then you’re ready to pursue running as a long term passion.
It does become a critical love affair on what you’re actually doing rather than just sitting on the sofa thinking about it. Realistically, the majority of us want to look the best that we can, and running has proven to be one of the best methods to do so.
That’s the reason why most will motivate themselves for their daily run, rain or shine, because the quality of the fresh air becomes a refreshing ritual, and the fact that the ice-cream sundae that you had the night before needs to burn off.
Running As A Weight Maintenance Program
So, is running really an effective method if you’re wanting to shed or maintain your weight. There may be a few caveats such as your ability level, your motivation, and properly preventing injury. Once you take these into consideration, the advice then becomes simple. Just put on your shoes and then run as long as you can and as far as you can.
Keeping Your Heart Rate In The Fat Burning Zone
While running, most will tell you that you need to increase and then keep your heart rate high enough for you to burn fat. While that may be true, it’s also some what irrelevant.
While you do need to oxidize body fat to lose weight, as well as burn more carbohydrate fuel which can only occur during higher intensity levels, you also need to realize where your energy is stored.
If you’ve ever been on a treadmill and monitored your actual heart rate, you’ve most likely seen the “fat-burning zone” indicator which you need to reach, which is usually around 60% percent, based on your weight, age, or body type. There may also be a scale for cardiovascular training as well.
These charts and scales are pretty accurate, but they may not tell you the entire story. Recent studies has shown that the highest level of fat oxidation actually occurs at 65%+ percent or greater intensity.
Fat burning becomes negligible above the 85% percent level since at these higher intensity levels, the body begins to burn mostly carbohydrates and not fat to get fuel. So the findings conclude that exercising at lower or moderate intensity levels results in better fat burning.
The Fat Burning Process 24 Hour Energy Balance
It may be ironic, but, actual fat loss isn’t about using the stored fat for fueling the activity. It’s more about the calories “in” and the calories “out,” which is known as the twenty-four-hour energy balance.
If your energy balance happens to be at a negative, which means more calories are burned off than consumed, weight is then lost. If the energy balance happens to be positive, then weight is gained.
Although it’s true that you’ll burn off more body fat while exercising moderately, but in the bigger picture of the 24 hour energy balance equation, this means absolutely nothing.
When you exercise and create a negative energy balance, what you’re doing is burning off those fat stores at some point during the day. This can occur while your resting, sleeping, eating, or doing any other activity.
So the fact that the actual ratio of the fat that was burnt during the moderate exercise was higher than the carbohydrates, it becomes irrelevant.
Reserving The Time For Exercising
Allocating the time to exercise for many is an issue in this busy world that we live in. If you can somehow afford 40 minutes from your schedule and are wanting to dedicate that time to burn off the maximize number of calories as possible, then that should be your priority.
If you have more time, what happens is the equation changes and becomes a balancing act, by attempting to find more challenging yet sustainable levels of maximum intensity, since the peak calories to be burned off is at around 75% percent.
It’s also important to know that once your metabolism increases, it also becomes a sliding scale when the intensity becomes higher. For instance, you would naturally burn more calories when running 5 miles than you would walking or slowly jogging the same 5 miles, and in less time as well.
There’s other reasons why you should be running at higher intensity levels. It will improve your overall level of cardiovascular fitness as well as making yourself available to do other sports. You’re also simultaneously boosting the good HDL cholesterol levels while eliminating the bad. Higher intensity workouts will also create a larger caloric “afterburn” as well.