How Much Should I Jog to Lose Weight?

How much should I jog to lose weight?" This is a fairly common question that you will hear among novice runners who are looking to use jogging as a means to a healthier lifestyle. Unfortunately, there is no universal answer that works for everyone. While running is indeed a very effective exercise for losing weight, you need to take many factors into consideration in order to effectively use it as a means for dropping those pesky excess pounds from your mid-section and getting your body in great condition.

To answer this question properly, let us first look at the whole concept behind losing weight and staying in shape. At its most basic, losing weight is all about balancing your calorie intake with your calorie expenditure; the fewer calories you eat and the more calories you burn, the more weight you lose. This is where jogging comes in. When you jog, you are basically burning calories so you can lose weight.
A natural extension of the "how much should I jog to lose weight" question, therefore, is how do I maximize my calorie expenditure via jogging. There are two important answers to this:

· First, a jogging plan that allows you to run at least 3 to 4 times a week with each run lasting 30 minutes to 1 hour is a good place to start for losing weight. Even at moderate intensity, this will allow you to burn about 800 to 1,000 calories per hour. Moreover, jogging can also boost your metabolism so even after you run, you are able to continue burning calories towards losing weight. When paired with a healthy diet plan, you can actually lose an average of 2 pounds per week from a jogging plan that has you running 3 to 4 times within the week.

· Second, and perhaps more important, increasing the intensity of your workouts is the ultimate secret to weight loss via running. In essence, the question "how much should I jog to lose weight" is only half of the story. The other half of it is "how fast should I run to lose weight?" Running faster burns more calories within a relatively shorter period and is actually more effective at boosting metabolism so you also burn more calories after running, much more so than if you were running at a moderate pace.

Combing these two concepts, the ideal solution therefore is to run 3 to 4 times a week with at least 1 of those workouts done at a high intensity. In the fitness world, these workouts are known as high intensity interval training or HIIT. When you perform a HIIT workout, you alternating running sprints with slow jogs so your body burns more calories during the high intensity phase and recovers just enough to prevent immediate fatigue during the low intensity phase.

So there goes the answer to the question "how much should I jog to lose weight?" The obvious answer is to run as much as possible, but 3 to 4 times a week is a great starting point. Then, by adding high intensity interval training, you will boost your metabolism and calorie expenditure further so in the end you will be able to lose more weight.

Our website is probably the best place to go for any information on jogging. We have almost 200 well-done articles on the subject, including many on jogging for weight loss. Be sure and browse through them. Here is one you may want to look at.