Jogging for Weight Loss

[Jilly10340]

So I'm new to the whole jogging thing and I had a few questions. About 5 weeks ago I started jogging to lose some pounds. I've lost about 4 pounds. I don't think I'm overweight, I'm 5'5 and weigh 120. I'm hoping to get down to what I weighed 2 years ago (110-115 pounds.)

 

I usually jog about 20-24 minutes, 5 times a week. That usually equals about 2.5 miles each time I run. Is this enough to lose weight? How much, how often, and how long should a person jog to lose weight? And how long does a person have to jog to see some real results. I can't seem to get a straight answer on this from jogging websites.

 

I know that there are some joggers on here and I would love some advice from them on how to lose weight through jogging.

 

Thanks!

[pioneer]

i jog twice a week, 1 mile at a time, but i also body build, u should dego loose weight doing that amount

[Berserk]

Hi Jill,

 

Jogging 5 times a week should be enough exercise. But you need to also monitor your eating. In order to lose weight your body's energy output (thorough exercise, physical activity, etc) has to be greater than your body's energy input (eating). To lose 1 pound of fat you have to burn off 3500 calories, meaning your energy output has to be 3500 calories greater than your energy input.

 

So to lose one pound of weight per week you would have to burn 3500 calories a week throught exercise or eat 3500 calories less a week, or you could do a combination of both. So if your jogging burns off say 300 calories a day, and you eat 200 less calories a day. That means you have net decrease of 500 calories a day. In 7 days you'll loose 1 pound if you manage to lose those 3500 calories.

 

Lifting weights could also help you lose weight because as you lift weights you're increasing your body's muscle mass and decreasing your body fat. Muscles use more energy than fat. With a higher muscle mass you will be burning off more calories at rest. You should benefit from lifting weights 2 times per week.

 

You may notice as you continuing exercising that you look slimmer than before but you haven't loss a lot of weight. The reason for this is because as you exercise you are increasing your body's muscle mass and decreasing your body fat. Muscle mass is heavier than fat mass. So using weight loss as a guide for your progress is probably not a good idea, the weight loss companies use this. As you continue to exercise you should see your body slim down, but it'll hard work and perserverance.

 

Hope that wasn't too confusing

[Linlin]

Berserk is right on the money with what they said.

 

Your energy input needs to be less than your energy output, ie eat less and exercise more.

 

Weight training is important. You should try to do it at least twice a week.

 

You should really try to run longer distances every other day just to let your muscles recover and to avoid injury. It doesn't matter how fast you run but the amount of time you run to burn fat. In fact, the longer you run, the more your body will use your fat stores as its fuel source.