Running to lose weight should be a vital part of your weight loss exercise program – if you are in good shape that is...

However, if you have been absent from the exercise crowd for a longer time it is better to start walking for weight loss first!

Running for weight loss is great because:

Running to lose weight is effective!
Running is a great workout for your body. You use up to 70 % of your muscles. And you can easily burn approximately 400 calories in half an hour!

You need very little to get started!
The best is that running to lose weight is easy. If you have an opportunity to do it outside – great! Use a nearby park and join a group or ask a friend if he wants to work out with you.
If you don’t have this possibility or if you don’t want to, no problem, you can:

• Join one of many fitness gyms and use their equipment
  
• Get your own home-trainer fitness machine if you want to train at home

On top, well, you need to get a good pair of running shoes...
and that is basically it! O.k., of course, important accessories might be an mp3 player and the likes...

Good running shoes are important to keep the strain on the body as low as possible. Also, use a good technique when running to minimize the risk of injury.

Running to lose weight – how to do get the maximum weight loss effect:

How often you should run:
The best is to train three times a week for 30 to 60 minutes.
Your training should consist out of three phases:

Warm-up phase
Stretch your legs before you start to run, especially if you want to go for a whole hour. Start power walking for the first 2 to 5 minutes, followed by running at a very slow speed for the next 3 to 5 minutes.

Running phase
Go to your heart rate optimal running speed

Cool-down phase
Use the last 3 to 5 minutes to reduce your speed and finish off by stretching your legs again.

Running to lose weight – your heart rate is key!
In order to lose weight you don’t need to run at great speeds! Of course, the faster you run the more calories you burn per minute.
However, what we want to do is to have the greatest fat-burning effect possible, right...?

...and we can achieve this by targeting our optimal heart rate during the running phase. This will give you the edge when running to lose weight!

Your heart rate during the running phase should never exceed 140. Otherwise you run the risk of burning carbs and not fat. This means that your speed should not be too high during running.

As a rule, you should still be able to talk during running. Make short walking breaks in between your running phase to measure your heart rate. Of course, in order to obtain a good weight loss effect, your heart rate should also not be too low. Try to be above 120!

How to measure your heart rate:
If you don’t use a wrist-band heart rate monitor, you can measure your heart rate while walking. Simply find your heart beat and measure the beats for 10 seconds. Multiply it by 6 and you have your heart rate. As it should not be higher than 140 nor lower than 120, the number of heart beats during the 10 seconds should be between 20 and 23!