Cardio Fitness, Featured, fitness, fitness trainer, personal trainer exercises, Running - May 22, 2013

Best Distance to Run to Lose Weight

Do you want to lose weight and use running as your number one physical activity? If so, do you know how far you need to run in order to achieve your weight loss goals?

Running is one of the best cardiovascular exercises when it comes to dropping excess pounds. You can do it pretty much anywhere and it doesn’t require a bunch of expensive equipment. Just get a good pair of shoes, some weather appropriate clothing and you’re good to go. But, how far do you need to run to reach your goal weight?

Calculate Your Distance

Actually, the distance that you need to cover varies from person to person. Several factors, such as age, gender and current weight, affect how quickly you’ll drop those excess pounds. For instance, men have more lean muscle than women, so they tend to lose weight faster. Also, if you have a lot of weight to lose, you’ll probably get greater results going a shorter distance than someone who is close to their fitness goals.

To figure out how far you personally need to run for weight loss, you’ll have to know how many calories you’re burning. There are several online calculators to help you do this. Just enter your current weight and the number of minutes you run at a particular speed and it will give you an approximate calorie burn.

Remember that 3,500 calories equals a pound of weight. So, for example, if you want to lose one pound a week, aim for running to burn 500 calories a day. Or, if you want to lose two pounds, you’ll have to go a distance that earns you 1,000 calories and so on.

To keep your body guessing and advancing in fitness, you’ll also want to change things up from time to time. Alter the time you spend on the trails or vary the speeds in which you run. This will keep you from plateauing.

Any running is better than no running. So lace up those shoes and hit the trails. Do your body good.