Let me be the first to break this to you: Not All Runners Lose Weight! There is good news however, Coach Tadris is going to give us 6 tips to help us to actually lose weight when we run. I used to think that I could outrun a suspect diet myself. I used to be an inconsistent runner without a plan and experienced inconsistent results. Desired results started to happen when I started honing in on key aspects of practice runs, and bringing my nutrition in harmony with my desired goals. I started to share my results with our community and watched individuals finally start to run towards their goals. 

In this week’s podcast to go along with this blog post, we also discuss having the right mindset to deal with the Coronavirus and the many canceled races.

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1. Run Consistently:                                                                                        

First and foremost, nothing good happens with inconsistency. Inconsistent effort equals inconsistent results. For our beginners, I always suggest that you pick a 5k race event to sign up for in the next 8-12 weeks. What would this do? Put your money where your mouth is. Now that you have committed to do a 5k event, this will help you start to consistently train for it. Most beginner training programs like a couch 2 5k app or schedules that you find, will have you training three days per week. These three training days per week will build a consistent running base. One of my favorite things about this tip, is that special date marked on the calendar. Your first race.   

2. Mix In Strength Training:

Strength training is so important in your weight loss and running journey. You may be surprised to learn this, but strength training burns calories and fat well after the workout is done. This is called the afterburn effect. Running does not have this calorie afterburning effect. How can you mix strength training in with your three days per week of running? You can run three days Monday, Wednesday, Friday and do total-body workouts on Tuesday and Thursday. If you really are trying to step up your results include Saturday as well. One word of caution for beginners is not to do too much too soon. If you can only mix in one day a week of strength training and can do so consistently…..go for it.     

3. Be Flexible:

Add a day for flexibility training. Yoga or Pilates can be done at home on an app or find videos on YouTube. With all the work that your body endures while running and strength training, stretching is refreshing and can heal the body. How can you add flexibility to your schedule? Run Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Strength training Tuesday and Thursday. Flexibility training on Saturday. Another point on flexibility: Being flexible also means that you are willing to adjust your schedule. If you planned to run in the morning but overslept. Run after work. If that fails, then let it go. Do not try to make up for it on back to back days in the beginning. In order to lose weight, once again consistency is important. If you run back to back days and injure yourself, that will set you back. Forgive yourself for missing the day and move on. 

4. Rest:

Get good sleep. Set up a good routine of no screens past a certain time of night. Go to bed at the same time in order to create a habit for your body. Your body needs time to recover. Every person is different as to the amount of sleep they need. It also takes about 15-30 minutes to fall asleep once laying in bed, so give your body that time needed to just rest. Getting enough rest is huge in weight loss. Not enough sleep affects hormones such as leptin which plays a major role in appetite regulation. There is a saying; Eat, Sleep, Run Repeat! This quote is so simple and so good. We talked about the running aspect. That word repeat, helps with what was discussed on consistency. Sleep tells us to rest. Now let’s talk about eating. 

5. Keep Your Nutrition Real:

Let me be the first to tell you that you cannot outrun a bad diet. Picture the scene as a beginner runner. You laced up your sneakers to hit the trail. During the run, you may have issues with your breathing, a little discomfort in your foot, yet you power through. In the end, you feel really good. You were able to make adjustments and now you feel empowered that you completed a 30-minute run. You check your smartwatch and see that you burned 350 calories on that run. You feel really inspired now! Then the family is ready for dinner and has plans for the fast-food burger joint. You may start to think to yourself: “It’s ok I ran today!” So you proceed to get a small fries (220 calories), a single cheeseburger, nothing fancy (313 calories) and a small soft drink (140 calories). Wow, would you look at that, 673 calories for the smallest items on the menu. We both know that after eating this, we are still hungry and when the children can’t finish their fries, we go on attack mode. In this example, we show you the basics of how easy it is for a person to run to lose weight and see zero results. On the other hand, if you focus on keeping your nutrition 100% real, not eating processed foods like refined grains, avoiding sugar and the like, you will drop the pounds that you would like. This my friends is my longest tip, because of my passion for helping individuals start to feel good about themselves again. Today’s food has a short term reward, but long term damage to our mental and physical well being. To lose weight with running you would want to eat real quality meat sources, potatoes, tons of vegetables, some fruit, nuts, and seeds. Avoid high inflammatory foods. Eating real food sources gives your body the nutrients needed, and in turn, fills you faster. By avoiding processed grains and sugars, your body will start to run off of healthy fats that you consumed. When those healthy fats from the meats, nuts, and seed run out, your body will use your own body fat for fuel. Hello, weight loss! For a list of high inflammatory foods to avoid, subscribe to our newsletter and you would receive a free copy of our Keeping It Real Nutrition Guide. You may also want to read our year in review blog of 2019 about how clients started to match their nutrition with their running efforts and everything changed for them. I’m so passionate about this portion that we run a FREE 7 Day Health Challenge for the community to try it for themselves. 

6. Step It Up (Intensity):

After 8 - 12 weeks of training, and you already lost 15-30 pounds (in some cases more), you may want to continue to lose more weight. Here is what you can do: Pick up the intensity. In the beginning, running for weight loss will seem easy and when you eat properly the weight will fall off. At some point, that same 30-minute run will not burn the same calories. Some feel as though they have to run longer to get the same calorie burn. Who has time for that? Now with 12 weeks under your belt, you may begin to pick up the intensity. Go to a track or use your GPS to track 400 meters which is a quarter-mile. After a 5-10 minute warm-up, go as hard as you can for a quarter-mile. Take a 2-3 minute rest, then go again. repeat this 4 times and you would have just completed a high intense speed training. The less break you take, the more intense the workout. At times our members only take a 60-sec break. Special note: Going as hard as you can does not have to be an all out sprint. Sprinting is like a 10 out of 10 effort. When doing these quarter mile repeats try for 6/7 out of ten effort. 

I really hope you enjoyed this article. It is my passion once again to help as many as I can break free from life’s traps that hold us back from achieving great things. If you have any questions feel free to ask. I will respond to questions on one of our future podcasts and even reach out to you personally. Remember my friends: Keep Calm And Run To The Best You. 

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