When someone wants to lose weight, the most common advice is eating less and increasing the time spent during a cardio workout. Running is the most popular form of cardio. However, is running a helpful method when it comes to burning belly fat and love handles?
The answer is yes; it is useful to an extent. However, running is never going to be the direct (and sole) reason for you burning belly fat and love handles.
Is Running Better than other Cardio Exercises?
No. Running will aid in burning a few calories. These extra few calories can to an overall calorie deficit (for the day), which will cause you to burn some excess body fat.
Running can burn up to 839 calories per hour if you are running 10 minutes per mile.
Furthermore, by using a jump rope, you can burn up to 990 calories per hour if you're jumping at a pace of 120 skips per minute. Also, sprinting burns 200 calories in only two and a half minutes.
This is why sprinting is deemed to be way more effective than simply running. So, as you can see, sprinting is better at burning more calories and getting rid of fat than simply running.
Running and Losing Weight – What to Know
For those wondering, running will make you hungrier. Certain health professionals have shared that running should not be your go-to option to lose belly fat. This is because after running, you are likely to crave food and consume more calories than you got rid of.
There are biological factors that impact appetite after an exercise session. Feeling hungry gives some wrong signals to your brain and body. Feeling hungry might make you think you burned a lot of calories.
Running seems useful at first, but gradually the results fade away. During running, you will lose fat as well as muscle mass. A decrease in muscle mass will reduce the number of calories your body can burn.
Jeopardizing or scarifying the muscle content is what we should not consider when our goal is to burn belly fat and love handles.
Running every day may also put your health at risk. Doing this particular cardio exercise a couple of days is acceptable. Keeping running within a limit won't deplete your muscle mass. But doing it every day will create problems when it comes to building muscle and keeping your joints healthy.
Better Approaches to Consider!
Don’t get it wrong, though. Running does help with burning some additional calories, but there are better ways to reduce belly fat and love handles.
Change your diet to speed up the effects of consuming healthy foods has on reducing belly fat and love handles. You should commit to a lower calorie diet. Avoid soda, refined grains, saturated, and trans fats.
If you feel hungry in between meals, pick healthier options like fresh fruit, an ounce of nuts, or berries with yogurt. Choose lean proteins and fill up on fibrous, watery vegetables.
Furthermore, try to reduce stress levels. Stress can cause poor food choices, overeating, and the release of the hormone called cortisol. All of these things can make your body put on unnecessary fat in your belly and lead to love handles.
Think of activities such as yoga or laughing therapy, that will help keep your stress levels down.
Also, it is vital to get enough sleep (more than 5 hours, and less than 9 hours). Yes, having a proper sleep schedule can help with losing extra weight.
Commit to at least 250 minutes of intense exercise per week. Once you feel comfortable, go for two to three sessions of high-intensity interval training, and increase the duration as you see fit.
Moreover, do strength training like push-ups at least twice a week as it helps target all muscle groups and preserve the muscle mass.
You should keep in mind that running can be added to your fitness regime to lose a few extra calories, as long as you don’t overdo it.
Wrapping It Up
"Does running reduce belly fat and love handles?"
Running is unnecessary when the goal is to shed a ton of fat. If you like running, it can help with improving your stamina and keeping a certain amount of fat from collecting in your body.
If you hate running, the good news is you don't have to go through it to reach your health goals.
If you concentrate on your diet and weight training, your results would be faster and better than just focusing on only running daily.
