When you seriously set out to lose belly fat it’s a lot of hard work and requires optimizations to your lifestyle habits. Although regular exercise can trim and tone other parts of the body, for many individuals, an excess stomach can be very stubborn. Fortunately, one of the best types of exercise for losing belly fat is running. There are also some small tweaks that can be made to your regular running regimen to provide a sustained boost of fat burning.
Can You Lose Belly Fat by Running?
Running is a highly effective type of fat-burning exercise. It is actually hard to beat if you are trying to lose weight. Data shared by the American Council on Exercise showed that a 180-pound runner is able to burn 170 calories while running at a steady pace for 10 minutes. The same runner on a 30-minute run will burn more than 500 calories. However, long runs alone will not help you lose belly fat. It is also essential to make lifestyle and dietary changes to solve these problem areas.
Even if you watch what you eat and run on a regular basis, you still may have belly fat that you are unable to shed. It could be due to diet in many cases. Even experienced runners sometimes make poor choices with their diets. For example, many people who exercise on a regular basis have a tendency to consume more sports drinks and protein bars. Some of them contain high sugar levels. Unfortunately, sugar loves to remain on the body, especially in the stomach area.
How Frequently Should You Run If You Want to Lose Belly Fat?
If you would like to see good rules, you will need to put in the work and be disciplined. To get rid of stubborn belly fat, work your way to doing 30 to 60 minutes of exercise at a moderate intensity four or five times per week. That may seem like a lot, and it can be hard to find the time if you have a very busy schedule. However, it doesn’t need to be four or five running sessions. Instead, you can run for 30 minutes three times per week and then add on a dance class, gym session, or swim. Diet permitting soon you will be burning the necessary calories to start getting rid of belly fat. To get the most out of your running invest in good quality running shoes from the Orthotic Shop.
How to Lose Belly Fat While You’re Running
Many runners fall into the trap of thinking that running further can help them burn more belly fat. However, that is not always true. Although long-distance runs are outstanding at burning calories and building endurance, they are not always the best when it comes to dealing with body fat. Mixing your training routine will usually be more successful when you are trying to lose belly fat.
The fact is, resistance training will help you maintain muscle mass while you are trying to lose belly fat by running. Ultimately you will want to adopt a strategy of 2-3 strength training sessions and 2-3 running sessions each week. Your best results will be found if you also use interval sprints for at least one of your running sessions, as high-intensity intervals are well-known to be the BEST source of post-workout metabolic activity while also stimulating muscular speed, strength, and power.
Consider Cross-Training
Cross-training refers to choosing a primary exercise, running in this case, and then adding secondary exercises like cycling and swimming, which both burn belly fat effectively. This helps to make improvements to the gains that the primary exercise makes. You should choose low-impact secondary exercises to reduce the risk of becoming injured, and should be done only for fairly short periods of time, at a maximum of 30 to 60 minutes in a session.
Try Trail Running
An easy way that your running can be tweaked for losing belly fat is to get out on the trails and off of the roads. You will probably have a slower pace, but trail running offers a better total body workout which can help to tighten the problem areas up. Jumping over rocks and logs, running down and up hills, and navigating terrains that are unpredictable and change often works your belly fat, glutes, quads, and calve much more than if you were to run on a flat road. Find the perfect running shoes at the Orthotic Shop. So if you have run into a weight loss plateau from running on roads, work smarter instead of harder by incorporating some trail running as an effective solution.
Incorporate Interval Running
The important question is not how frequently you should run if you want to burn belly fat. The important thing is the kind of running that you do. It has been shown in studies that high-intensity workouts involving high exertion levels for short periods of time are a lot more effective for burning fat, especially in the belly. When you run at different speeds the flow of oxygen will be increased to your muscles to shed more calories and give your metabolism a boost. If interval running is something new for you, there are many different kinds of training sessions that are available online that can help you reach your goals.
Final Thoughts
So, it is decided that running should be a part of your routine. Doesn’t matter if it’s long-distance or interval sprints, as long as you get the conditioning in and mix it up with resistance training. When you’ve set out to lose belly fat you want to try to use all resources and strategies at your disposal, including a diet such as Intermittent Fasting or targeted carbohydrates. Put all these ingredients together into a healthy active lifestyle, give it at least 3 months, and you will see the results you want.
Tags: exercise, fitness, interval running, interval training, intervals, run, runner, runners, running, workout
