Is Running A Smart Way To Lose Weight?

When it comes to exercising for weight loss what’s the first thing that comes to your mind?

Chances are, it’s running.

The problem is, a lot of people hate the very idea of going running.

If this is you then good news, you don’t have to run, there’s plenty of other ways to train.

The next problem is that you may have been told by an interwebz fitness expert that running sucks for losing weight.

Because this is what often happens with fitness, experts make it as confusing as possible just to make your life harder.

The truth is, as always, is slightly nuanced.

In the next few paragraphs I’ll do my best to clear these murky waters for you so you can make the best choice for you and your training.

Let’s start off by stating a fact you’ve probably heard a hundred times before.

Weight loss (or gain) is determined by how much energy you consume vs how much energy you use.

Take in more calories than you consume, gain weight, burn more calories than you consume, you lose weight.

Running will help to increase your energy expenditure. How long and how hard you go will affect your output.

So the obvious answer is that it helps weight loss…right?

Unfortunately, it’s not that simple.

Although running increases your calories out over the short term whilst you're running, in the long term it’s possible that it could cause an increase.

To understand why, it’s important to realise that the body is always trying to maintain a set point or homeostasis.

NEAT

The first point we need to consider is N.E.A.T (Non Exercise Attributable Thermogenesis). This is the fancy name given to all the movements we do each that isn’t formal exercise.

From tapping a pen at our desk while thinking, waving our arms around whilst telling a story to walking up a flight of stairs, this is all energy we are expending without really thinking about it.

As the body attempts to maintain a balance between energy input and output we unconsciously reduce the amount of energy we expend via NEAT.

We move less without realising it.

Standing still on the escalator, crashing on the couch instead of playing with the kids etc.

Obviously, this isn’t unique to running, other types of exercise can also induce this reduction.

Where running differs is that people will often push themselves quite hard in a run and unlike cross training in a gym, it’s the same muscles taking the stress in a repetitive pattern, rather than the load being shared across the body.

This can mean that running may require a greater period of recovery and therefore less training and an increased chance of NEAT reduction.

Appetite Control

The second thing to consider is appetite.

A good run will likely lead to an increase in appetite.

This could be complemented by your reward circuits that will start to tell you that you deserve to eat all the treat foods as you had such a good run.

This isn’t hugely scientific, but I went for a run a few days ago. According to my Oura ring, it lasted 22 minutes and I burned 228 calories.

I’ll be honest, I was knackered that day and the run wasn’t great, afterwards I just felt even more knackered.

Those 228 calories are about the equivalent of a Kit Kat bar.

I could eat all of them back in less than a minute.

However, I also did some walking that day and according to the ring I burned 220 calories in an hour.

I didn’t really notice that walking, it was just part of my day and it certainly wouldn’t have left me knackered or feeling that I deserved to eat all the carbs to recover.

This is one of the reasons that the anti running group tend to hate it, as it burns fewer calories than you think, requires a large recovery time and we tend to be poor judges of how much we consume at the best of times, let alone when our appetite has been sparked by a run.

However, the running bashers don’t have it all their own way, there’s an important element their argument is missing.

The Human element.

Despite what you see on social media you need other things when losing weight.

Like social support, accountability…basically people who have got your back.

Running clubs are a great place for this kind of thing.

You also need easy access to exercise, so a gym that’s miles away or outside of your financial budget isn’t going to cut the mustard.

It doesn’t get much easier than slipping a pair of trainers on and stepping outside your front door…(even though that is often the hardest part of a run).

To summarise it so far.

Running can help create a calorie deficit, it’s easy to access and there are lots of ways to become involved in a supportive environment without paying through the nose.

This is offset by the physical toll it can take, its effect on regulating your appetite and the fact we tend to feel we “deserve” more treats even though the amount of calories expended is relatively low.

Personally I always feel very cautious about a client adding running to their training schedule for one big reason that I haven’t mentioned yet.

Biomechanics.

This is another fancy term and describes the way our joints move in relation to each other.

For example, the hip is designed to be very mobile.

It can move forwards, backwards, to the side and go in a circle.

Many of us start to lose the full range of movement at the hip, mainly from lack of use (sitting for hours at a time probably doesn’t help).

This leads to muscles at the hip becoming weaker, which leads to even less movement…a real vicious cycle.

If you try to run with poor movement at the hip, the likely outcome is that the knee will start to become beaten up.

The poor biomechanics lead to the wrong tissues of the knees being constantly overloaded. Which is why so many runners complain of knee issues.

This isn’t to say you shouldn’t run.

But more to say, that it maybe a smart move to focus on getting a certain level of strength and mobility before starting a running program.

In my experience, you’ll not only help to prevent an injury but increase your potential as a runner as you’re able to develop more force into the ground, which can help with increased speed and/or endurance.

The end result of all this is that there are a number of pro’s and cons to running.

If you have a goal of being able to run a certain distance, such as a dream to run a marathon, then of course you should run.

If you have a goal to look a certain way, such as being more muscular and defined, then there are definitely better tools than running.

Running won’t build lean muscle and won’t burn fat half as quickly as paying close attention to what you eat will. In this scenario I’d choose a type of cardio that had a lot less impact on the joints and less of a stimulus on appetite.

For me personally, I like running, it’s part of feeling like myself.

I’ve been bigger and more muscular in the past, but I hated the feeling of being out of breath when I ran for a bus.

But I also like feeling strong and I hated how skinny and weak I felt in the gym when I returned to weights after competing in a marathon.

So I have a sweet spot, in which I feel running a decent 5km doesn’t leave me feeling beaten up and allows me to have a good base to build up from if ever a friend talks me into doing something longer, such as 10km or half marathon with them.

To finish this up, running is a tool and just like a tool the results you get with it depend on how you apply it.

If you hate running, don’t run.

If you want an option that helps your heart and lungs to be stronger and gets you outdoors, then running could be an answer.

Just don’t expect it to function as a way to transform your body into looking like some fitness magazine cover model.