How to lose weight or maintain a healthy weight through running?

Running is an excellent cardiovascular exercise. It allows you to accelerate your heart rate and keep it at a high level. It is also an aerobic exercise, which stimulates your respiratory system. Your body will increase its oxygenation and dilate your blood vessels to transport more oxygen to your muscles. One of the many benefits of regular aerobic cardiovascular exercise such as running, combined with a balanced diet, is weight control, whether you are losing weight or maintaining your ideal weight.

Here are some tips for losing weight or maintaining a healthy weight through running:

1. Exercise 3 times a week or more

To lose weight or maintain your ideal weight through running, there is no miracle, you have to burn calories. And to burn enough, you need a certain frequency and a certain duration/intensity of running sessions (each at their own pace). In terms of frequency, you should aim for 3 sessions and preferably 4 per week. You should try to alternate the type of sessions between recovery sessions at a moderate pace, sessions still at a moderate pace but (longer) to gain endurance and interval sessions or shorter but more intense hill sessions to gain speed. The duration of the sessions should be 45 minutes (it is of course possible to start with 30 minutes and gradually move towards 45 minutes). Remember to always include 5 to 10 minutes of gradual warm-up and 5 to 10 minutes of gradual cool-down. Long outings normally exceed the hour of running. For those who are starting out in running, don't hesitate to alternate between running and walking at the beginning and gradually increase the running portion and decrease the walking portion.

2. Combine running and muscle strengthening

Strengthening your muscles, especially your legs and core, is a great complement to running. It allows you to acquire a more efficient running technique with fewer unwanted movements and to delay the onset of fatigue. It is also a way to increase your calorie expenditure at rest, since this is linked to muscle mass. By increasing our muscle mass, we increase our basic metabolism. The consequence is that we will burn more calories during physical exercise but also after exercise, at rest.

3. Control your diet

To lose weight, you have to systematically burn more calories than you take in through food over a period of several weeks or even months. That is to say, you have to be in a caloric deficit until you reach your target weight, your ideal weight. It is not about depriving yourself and eating too little, but rather burning more calories by, for example, running regularly while continuing to eat normally and in a balanced way. Nutritional advice abounds and the foods to favor are well-known: those rich in fiber, fruits, vegetables (two of my favorites: beets and hummus made from chickpeas). On the other side of the nutritional equation, be careful of foods that are too fatty, too salty and too sweet and limit alcohol consumption. Last key point: once the ideal weight is reached, you must of course ensure that you balance your caloric intake and expenditure and not continue to be in a chronic caloric deficit.

4. Be patient and persevere

Weight loss is never instantaneous. It takes weeks or even months to materialize and it takes discipline to chain running or trail running sessions week after week. It is therefore necessary to be patient and persevere over time. The game is worth the candle: in addition to weight loss and the gradual improvement in cardiovascular performance linked to regular running, there are other benefits such as a greater level of energy on a daily basis, better sleep (linked to healthier physical fatigue) or greater self-confidence.

5. Listen to your body

When we practice a regular physical activity such as running, it is important to listen to our body to detect any discomfort that could be warning signs of an injury. There are two key words to avoid the potential appearance of an injury: progressiveness and recovery. Do not force or try too quickly to go faster, to run much longer and always make sure to recover well especially after more demanding sessions. And do not hesitate if you feel tired to slow down a little. In the event of symptoms getting worse or lasting over time, do not hesitate to consult your general practitioner or a sports doctor.

6. BMI or BRI

What is hidden behind its abbreviations? BMI stands for Body Mass Index and IRC stands for Body Roundness Index ( BMI or BRI in English: Body Mass Index or Body Roundness Index ). Until recently, the Body Mass Index was the index mainly used to quickly estimate an individual's corpulence. The BMI formula is weight (kg) divided by height squared (m2). A BMI index between 18.5 and 24.9 is considered normal, beyond 24.9 begins the overweight zone and above 30, that of obesity. This index is questioned for its lack of precision by not taking sufficient account of different body types (such as a potentially very muscular person) and a new index considered more reliable has appeared: it is the IRC or body roundness index. It takes into account size (height), weight and waist circumference (sometimes hip circumference). The CRI formula is more complex, but there are online CRI calculators – see the link below. On this link, the CRI (or BRI ) zone indicated as the risk zone is U-shaped, to the left and right of the scale: either below 0.7 (insufficient nutrition leading to extreme thinness), or above 3.2 (too rich nutrition and insufficient physical activity resulting in overweight, or even higher indices of obesity). The scale theoretically goes from 0 to 20. You can get your CRI on the link above (the site is in English by default but it is possible to change the language to French).

https://webfce.com/bri-calculator/

In summary, running is perhaps, along with brisk walking, the best and easiest way to lose weight and/or maintain your ideal weight. To do this, you need to train regularly and progressively while monitoring your nutrition. A little patience and perseverance and the results will become apparent and with them, the satisfaction of feeling better physically and mentally.

In short, only positive!