The Real Secret Behind Running and Fat Loss

For a long time there has been the perceived notion that running is all powerful and magical when trying to lose weight and for a long time I too was in the mode of having to include running as part of my fat loss programming.

I think the misconception lies in the thought that weights, bodyweight, and cardio machines and cardio exercise have to be two very different types of training and both have to be done to get results.  That couldn’t be farther from the truth.  In fact the most effective fat loss programs are those that infuse both cardio with weight training and are often called metabolic circuits or metabolic training.  The only true difference between weight training and cardio training is the amount of repetitions that are performed. Here’s an angle to look at running that you may not have thought of before.

On average jogging a mile burns approximately 100 calories, takes around 1500 reps to perform, and involves forces of 2-4 x bodyweight you can see where there can be some potential joint issues with using jogging as your primary fat loss metabolic training.

If we look further, let’s say a 150lbs person runs a mile in fifteen minutes. That’s at least 300lbs of force going through the knees, hips and ankles, 1500 times in order to burn 100 calories. . That’s a lot of volume, potential joint stress for really, not a lot of return. We’d need to do that 35 times in order to burn enough calories to lose a pound of fat

Contrast that with a full body metabolic circuit using moderate resistance with weights and minimal rest periods and will get the same metabolic conditioning effect (or probably more) with less total reps, less total volume, less joint stress and spread it out over the entire body (as opposed to just the lower body). Circuits like this will burn way more than the 100 calories from running.

Choose a variety of options when it comes to your metabolic conditioning such as weights and bodyweight in order to get a bigger bang for your buck and see faster satisfying results.