Training your body to become more efficient.

Running for weight-loss is somewhat of a catch-twenty-two.  Running is a harsh sport.  No question about it.  Your joints, ligaments, muscles, bone structure and internal organs all take a beating.  The heavier you are the harsher the impact.  However, you are also training your body to adjust and cope with the impact.  The difficult part is to not go beyond your body’s limits but still push yourself enough to burn calories and build up your body’s awareness to change and adapt.  Most people though, do not hit that limit unless pushed by a professional trainer.  Most of us, including me, quit before our body’s limit.

I’ve preached time and time again that you should invest in a heart rate monitor.  This is a key factor to help determine what level your body is training at.  The following is a “general guideline” and does not meet the attributes of every runner out there. 

40%-60% is your fat burning zone
61%-80% is an aerobic zone
81%-99% is an anaerobic zone

Generally speaking it’s very difficult to get to 100% or more of your max heart rate.  Chances are you will quit before reaching this zone.  Fat burning zone is exactly that, you are in a zone of a workout where you are burning or in the process of burning fatty calories.  Aerobic is where you are conditioning your heart as well as burning fat.  Anaerobic is where you are using more energy than what you body can produce.  Again, these are all Laymen’s Terms and it goes much deeper than that.

Now here’s the cool part.  As you are working out in a zone for a period of time, you are still continuing to burn calories even after you’ve stopped working out.  So if you spend an hour in an aerobic state, you will continue to burn calories for some time after that (that time will vary according to your conditioning).  So it is at that time shortly after you workout, that you need to take in fluids and food to replenish your system.  This is also a time where you are most susceptible to outside influences such as colds, flu strands and so on.  Eating to replenish your system helps prevent those outside influences.  Diet is also essential for weight loss, but that will be covered later.

There is also a general rule to losing weight that involves frequency.  This is usually broken down to how many times a week you are running.  This general rule is working out three times a week will help you maintain your weight, but not necessarily lose your weight.  Plan on at least four workouts, in a row during your week, before a rest day to help lose your weight.