Does running burn fat? | POPSUGAR Fitness

With all the well-deserved hullabaloo around HIIT training, conventional cardio workouts, such as jogging, walking or cycling, are often overlooked, especially when It is about burning fat. It's a good idea to balance these two activities throughout your workout program, both for weight loss and injury prevention, but if your goal is to eliminate fat, you should not be watching cardio. nor run, like a waste of time. It can play an important role in your weight loss journey, although it certainly is not everything.

Change intensity and effort burns the most fat

In short, running definitely burns fat, and that strongly depends on your fitness and the intensity of the race. "Many people will start running and will actually lose fat and weight," said Dr. Steven Mayer, a sports medicine specialist at the Northwestern Medicine Running Clinic. "Usually, however, it will decrease over time because the body restores its metabolic rate based on your stroke volume and what you are doing." Essentially, you will reach a plateau. your body is accustomed to running at a distance, at a certain speed or on a specific terrain and adjusting so that you do not have the same weight loss benefits. One of the editors of POPSUGAR had trouble solving this problem.

The best way to overcome this frustrating obstacle, said Dr. Mayer, is to increase the intensity of your errands. This could mean adding hills, increasing your speed or perceived effort speed, or even performing some HIIT races with high speed intervals and rest periods (such as this interval training on conveyor belt). Anything that increases the intensity will help you burn more energy and more fat.

One caveat: If you run for long periods of time at a high speed or effort, said sports physiologist Richard Lampman of the University of Michigan, your body could go from burning fat to muscle breakdown to give you energy. It's definitely something you want to avoid, Dr. Mayer acknowledged – and you can. If you run for more than an hour, he advised you to take a high carbohydrate snack, such as a chewing gel or an energy gel, so as not to burn other resources in your body.

Can walking or slow jogging burn fat?

If you're a beginner, walking is a great way to start losing weight, said Lampman. He recommended walking for a specified period of time, such as 20 minutes, to rest and then walk again. (Try this week-long walking interval plan for beginners.) "You can go longer this way than you could just do it all at the same time," he said. If that seems too easy, start with a light jog and take a break to rest. Try to increase the duration a little more each time until you no longer need breaks at all.

Dr. Mayer pointed out that working at low intensity, such as walking or a slow jog, would be an effective workout for burning fat for beginners. Once you start to be in shape, however, and as the speed starts to feel easier, you will need to intensify the intensity one way or another, by increasing speed, effort, or adding terrain features such as hills. "I found out that you really had to work with higher intensity types to really continue to burn fat over time," he said.

Will running well to burn fat?

"I think running is a great exercise for people who want to burn fat and lose weight," said Dr. Mayer, "but I think that alone will not be the long-term solution. "The key," he said, "is to mix it with HIIT, bodybuilding and basic work. "Weight training helps you build muscle," he says, boosting your metabolism and helping you burn more calories throughout the day. This combination, combined with regular intervals (and a healthy diet), is a good recipe for fat loss.