Running to Lose Weight And Your Free Weight Loss Plans

We use the phrase 'running to lose weight' to refer to any kind of intense fitness exercise you do for just three minutes twice a week as part of your weight loss program.

Running to lose weight will not only help you to burn fat. It will also improve your cardiovascular fitness, which has numerous important health benefits including just feeling better.

Proper intense fitness training will strengthen your heart, which is a muscle.

It doesn't really matter which exercise you use twice weekly to get your heart beating faster in a precise way for a limited amount of time.

This kind of exercise does not have to be running. If you prefer, you may use some other form of intense exercise.

It's best done on a motorized treadmill, using a stationary bike, or using some other piece of gym equipment such as a Concept II rowing machine, a Versa Climber, or an elliptical trainer.

There's no one best way that works well for everyone.

Intense fitness training is always brief. Although there won't be much time required, you may prefer to listen to music during your running exercise sessions. (We like upbeat classic rock and roll during our running exercise sessions.)

The graded exercise protocol [GXP] that we recommend for intense fitness exercise is based on research done by Dr. Robert Otto. It was developed by Ralph Carpinelli, Ed.D., and promoted by Richard Winet, Ph.D., in his "Master Trainer" newsletter.

As explained elsewhere, you should do running to lose weight or GXP exactly twice weekly in addition to strength training and mild fitness training (walking).

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Simple and precise

It's a very simple, precise, and effective program. It's the minimum you'll need to sustain a satisfactory level of cardiovascular fitness.

If you want a higher level for athletics or overall conditioning, you'll need to do more than the running to lose weight plan presented on this page.

However, doing more will make more serious inroads into your ability to recover from physical training; in other words, you'll increase the risk of overtraining.

A running to lose weight plan has three phases: overall warm-up, the training itself, and a cool-down. Do not rest between the three phases.

The overall warm-up lasts about three minutes. Using a heart rate monitor while running, pedaling, or doing whatever exercise you've selected, get your heart rate to between 80 and 85% of its predicted maximum.

The training itself is simply keeping your heart rate at that steady state for three (or four or five) minutes.

The cool-down reverses the warm-up and should take about three minutes. It is very important that the running to lose weight exercise not be too severe, so that your recovery can be relatively quick. So do not exceed 50% of your predicted maximum heart rate by the end of the cool-down.

Remember: this is a training program. This running to lose weight exercise or GXP program is precise, which is an important advantage since it's easier to improve a practice that can be measured than to improve one than cannot be measured.

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Introduce this program slowly

Here's how to introduce this program slowly: (using the three-minute warm-ups and cool-downs) begin with a training phase of just 15 seconds. Simply increase the duration of the training phase by 15 seconds each time you exercise until the training phase lasts for three minutes.

It is critical to use a heart rate monitor to ensure the effectiveness of your training.

(Cardio Sport makes a simple, reliable one that isn't too expensive and has a replaceable battery.)

Do not use this exercise protocol without monitoring your heart rate.

Do not use it without obtaining your physician's blessing in advance. Never exceed 85%.

How should you determine the 80 and 85% numbers? If you happen to know your actual maximum heart rate based on standard exercise testing, use those numbers.

If you don't (as it likely), there are different ways to calculate your age predicted heart rate. The most common method involves subtracting your age from 220. Taking 85% of that number yields the maximum pulse rate, and taking 80% of it yields the minimum pulse rate. During the 3 minute work stage, simply keep your pulse rate between those two numbers.

If you are more serious about fitness, we recommend using the Karvonen heart rate reserve method. It yields slightly higher target ranges. Here's how to calculate it:

Where 'RHR' abbreviates 'resting heart rate before getting out of bed in the morning' and where 'THR' abbreviates 'target heart rate,' the formula is: <220 minus age minus RHR = _A_ and <_A_ x % + RHR = _THR_.

For example, suppose you are 21 and have a RHR of 70. So, 220 minus 21 minus 70 = 129. Then 129 x 80% + 70 = 173.2 (rounded to 173) and 129 x 85% + 70 = 179.65 (rounded to 180). So during the steady state training phase of running exercise or GXP, you should maintain your heart rate between 173 and 180.

For example, suppose you are 50 and have a RHR of 70. So, 220 minus 50 minus 70 = 100. Then 100 x 80% + 70 = 150 and 100 x 85% + 70 = 155. So during the steady state training phase, you should maintain your heart rate between 150 and 155.

If you are doing the strength training and mild fitness training parts of the program presented here in addition to intense fitness training, you may want to get even fitter. Even though there's no need to do so, it's easy to use this running to lose weight exercise or GXP program to do that.

Keeping the warm-up and cool-down the same, simply increase the duration of the training phase from three to four minutes.

Want to get even fitter? Keeping the warm-up and cool-down the same, simply increase the duration of the training phase from four to five minutes.

Remember, though, that your ability to recover from exercise is limited.

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Don't do too much

Too much exercise can be worse than too little. Though very beneficial, intense exercise stresses your internal organs such as your kidneys, your liver, and your pancreas. It's important to let them recover fully.

So, unless there is some very important reason to exceed it, please do not exceed a five minute training phase.

In short, you can get all the intense fitness training you need each week in two training sessions of under eleven total minutes each using this method of running for weight loss or GXP!

So, the idea that you don't have the time to attain and maintain a good degree of cardiovascular efficiency is nothing but an excuse.

Once fitness exercise reaches a certain level of intensity, our bodies cannot process fat fast enough to provide sufficient energy. Therefore, they rely on glucose circulating in the blood and stored glycogen for that energy. This exercise protocol is too intense for effective fat burning.

This exercise protocol can, however, be used for fat burning. What is the intensity level that is most efficient for burning fat? Not everyone burns fat at the same level of intensity.

The more efficient your ability to process oxygen is during fitness exercise, the greater is your ability to burn fat.

For most people, fat burning during fitness exercise occurs at a moderate intensity level, more specifically, at about 60 to 65% of maximum heart rate.

Furthermore, the fewer carbs ingested before fitness exercise, the greater the fat burning. To take full advantage of this fact (as many fitness models and bodybuilders do), you may schedule your fitness training in the morning before your first feeding.

As long as you have your physician's blessing, why not try it? In terms of permanent weight loss, doing so will get your day off to the best possible start.

If you want to use this protocol for fat burning, modify the formulas above to calculate your 60 and 65% heart rate range.

On the days when you are not doing intense fitness exercise, you may use this protocol for mild fitness training by simply keeping your heart rate during the training phase between 60 and 65% and increasing the duration of training.

Even just for mild fitness exercise, please never do it for more than 60 consecutive minutes. In fact, the injury rate dramatically diminishes at 45 minutes and again at 30 minutes. So, two 30 minute sessions are safer than one 60 minute session.

If you are an athlete, you'll need to make the necessary adjustments in your overall training program to accommodate specialized training for your sport.

Please experiment to determine which blend of strength training, mild fitness training, and intense fitness training works best for you.

Again, please do not do more than the minimum until you have thoroughly integrated regular strength training, mild fitness training, and intense fitness training into your life.

Once they become habits, believe it or not you'll find yourself looking forward to training!

This completes the running to lose weight page.