Weight loss

Has anyone managed to lose weight through running alone. Very happy plodding along but can't step away from the choccie. Some veRy slow weight loss but nothing spectacular. No willpower to diet.

Comments

  • I run alone and I have lost weight.  Do you think having someone to chat to would burn more calories?  I suppose it would.  I might try talking to myself.  Or is it the factor of having someone to compare with?

  • You will loose weight for sure, as long as you don't reward yourself with extra after a good week of running. Healthier eating are very likely to follow the more you run.
  • imho Running alone (as in not dieting/healthy eating at the same time) might help you lose a little but 'alone' will not see serious weightloss (or keep it off).

    I'm lucky and actually trying to bulk up a little. I burn about 500 calories an hour whilst running so to lose 1lb I need to run for around 7 hours - a good healthy diet with an excercise routine will help the weight slip off much faster. I like chocolate too, and beer and fags and....  - you just need to reign it in a little. Don't think 'Diet' think of a healthy eating regime where chocolate plays a small role image

  • You'd have to run huge miles to lose weight and scoff chocolate.

    What's a mars bar ? 300 calories or so ?

    You'd need to run about 3 miles just to burn that off.



    Unless you're an experienced ultra runner - it won't work.



    You can have a bit of chocolate - but unless you're burning more calories than you're eating - forget about losing weight.
  • How about eating clean ( no processed foods, or very little if you can not do 0 processed) and having some dark choc like Lindt in the evening. You wont be denying yourself and you will have loads of energy for a run. =)

  • Nose NowtNose Nowt ✭✭✭

    Like others have said, running by itself will not bring any notable weight loss. But it will still hugely improve your health - which is a very important consideration).  And, of  course, it will help to provide some level of weight control.

    If you keep on running for weight control, eventually I'd expect your willpower to slowly increase.  I think you'll start to decrease chocolate portion sizes... and frequency with which you eat it, without thinking too much about it.   Then you're onto a virtuous circle.

  • Diet is the best way to get to the right weight. Don't think of "a diet" as cutting back - think of it as getting to the right amount of food for what you want your weight to be. Sustainability is the goal.

     

    Too many people think of a diet like a boxer cutting weight before a weigh in. It should be more about staying in a sensible weight range, and if you cut back to what you will need at that point, and do the running on top, you'll gradually float down gently to the right weight.

    And yes this can still include lots of chocolate as long as you're sensible with everything else.

  • I'm trying a different approach myself. I don't eat much chocolate but tend to snack on crisps and such. Quite a bit of the protien I eat is processed and looking at new figures I should be eating a lot more protien. So when i feel hungry I try to snack on lean meats like chicken breast or turkey. Hopefully it's helping my muscles recover after the long runs and cuts down the amount of fats and carbs I eat.

  • So many words of wisdom here. Time for a strict talk with myself. I still can't quite understand how I can get up at 5.00 to go for my runs regardless of weather  (well, apart from snow) but can't give up the sweets. But will take on board all the advice given above - thank you - and try and get a grip on this.

     

  • booktrunkbooktrunk ✭✭✭

    i think it's nearly impossible to loose weight through running alone. 

    Seriously... You need to loose 3,500 calories a week to loose 1 lb. That is around 30-50 miles EVERY WEEK to loose 1lb if you don't add 1 calorie to yodue food to make up for the running.

    Last marathon I did 2,200 calories lost.... Good luck loosing weight through running alone.

    you will change your body shape easily, and you will look as if you have lost wright, but I doubt you will actually loose much weight.

  • booktrunkbooktrunk ✭✭✭

    Sorry... Just realised everyone had already said that... My post was a waste "ditto" would have done imageimageimage

  • That's pretty standard for 99% of my posts though booktrunk, If I had to be original in every post, I wouldn't post!

     

     

  • If you haven't got the willpower to watch what you eat you don't want to lose weight enough.  Weightloss is so bloody easy it should be on a GSCE paper.

  • Keep your meal portions small but maximise on nutritional value, and sure have a treat, but check the calories on the back of the packet.  I try to keep my treats to no more than 170 calories.

    Also, you need to be burning more calories than you're consuming.....

    Gym sessions are excellent for burning calories as are faster runs.

    Don't let yourself get ravenous either, so have something to keep yourself going until dinner time like a couple of crackers with cottage cheese on.

  • booktrunkbooktrunk ✭✭✭

    Fresh fruit. It was a huge key in my diet threw out all my sweets and replaced them with fresh fruit image

  • Thanks again. 

    Booktrunk I have read your marathon posts. Very inspiring. It's on my bucket list.

     

  • booktrunkbooktrunk ✭✭✭

    image eeek 

    I have to say.... Crossing the line was awesome. You feel so good! It's utterly awesome. 

    Knowing you've put X training in it's just makes it so worthwhile. It's really YES I did this.

     

  • I don't think losing weight is easy, society and particularly advertising seems designed now to fatten people up even when they think they're making healthy options.

    As a few others have said running low to medium distances is less significant than diet. But I think being a runner is quite a boost to the psychological battle of losing weight. I think it promotes a better self image and helps focus on living a healthy lifestyle.

    I think if you just try and cut out processed food and drink it is a big help. I don't think some 'healthy snacks' are benifical either. It used to be frowned upon to eat between meals. I think we only do so now because the food industry want to sell more products.

  • The Cochrane Library - Exercise for overweight or obesity

    "We found that exercise has a positive effect on body weight and cardiovascular disease risk factors in people with overweight or obesity, particularly when combined with diet, and that exercise improves health even if no weight is lost."

    Also - Diet or exercise, or both, for weight reduction in women after childbirth

    "Preliminary findings suggest that diet combined with exercise or diet alone compared to usual care seemed to enhance weight loss during postpartum... it seems preferable to lose weight through a combination of dieting and exercise to dieting alone because exercise is thought to improve circulation and heart fitness, and to preserve lean body mass."

  • Big_GBig_G ✭✭✭
    Junglechicken wrote (see)

    Gym sessions are excellent for burning calories as are faster runs.

     

    Isn't it the case that you more or less burn as many calories per mile walking as you do running?  If so, if you were running (say) 5 miles quickly or running 5 miles slowly you'd burn more or less the same calories over that distance.  That's my understanding anyway.  Someone did explain this on another thread to me recently, but I can't find the thread now.

    If you're time-bound then from a calorie perspective you'd burn more if you run quicker/further in that set amount of time but from a long term running goal perspective this may not be the best approach as there are lots of threads telling people to slow down on their training runs if they want to get faster in the long run.

  • Running v Walking

    "running a mile burns roughly 26 percent more calories than walking a mile"

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