Lose 5 Pounds by Running

3 work-out programs to help you lose 5 pounds without dieting.
By Patricia Symes-Daughtry

If you're overweight, then you're overweight. It doesn't matter if you wear vertical stripes or dark solid colors. These things will not change the number on your bathroom scale.

Weight loss is not about just looking thin. It's all about the numbers - the pounds that you need to lose and the calories that you need to burn. "When you want to lose weight, you need to take a look at your calories," says Dr. Joyce V. Wright, a world-renowned weight loss expert who has published a several books on the subject. To lose 1 pound of fat in a week, you need to burn a total of 3,500 calories for the week. That's about 500 calories burned each day. That's about as straight to the point as you can get.

Runners already have a great advantage if they want to lose weight. Running has been determined to be one of the best and most effective ways to burn calories. On the average, a 150-pound person will burn about 100 calories for every mile that they run. This means that for about 10 minutes of running, you will shed off 100 calories, which is much faster than you will ever lose using other activities.

If you are already running regularly, and you're still not losing weight, you might need to adjust your running schedule. Perhaps you just need to run a bit of a longer distance or do a faster pace, but you're mostly on your way to losing weight already. You don't even have to change the way you eat.

Yes, it's true. There is no need to diet with this program. You just have to maintain your regular eating routines, and simply add a little intensity to your workout regime. The 3 plans that we have outlined for you will greatly improve your calorie-burning capacity, and you will soon be losing weight without sacrificing your favorite foods.

With our 3 programs, you will not only lose weight, but you will also get fitter and learn to lead a healthier lifestyle. In fact, once you finish the third program, you will even be fit enough to compete in a marathon!

It's important to remember that the fitter a person is, the more calories they burn. So the more you run, the fitter you'll be, and the more calories you'll burn. Talk about multiple benefits, and all from doing something that you enjoy in the first place.

THE SCIENTIFIC PROOF

Running is a good way to burn calories faster, but you will have to either run at a higher intensity or run a longer distance.

Run at a higher intensity. We've already told you that you can burn about 100 calories with every mile you run. But you can burn even more calories in a mile if you're up for it. The amount of calories that you can take off also depends on your running speed and the kind of terrain you're running on.

According to Dr. Wright, people burn more calories running than walking. Therefore it follows that the faster you run, the more calories you also burn. "This is due to the additional effort exerted by the body, which stems from a continued high-aerobic activity," she explains.

Aside from increasing your pace, running uphill will also significantly increase the amount of calories you burn. You may have noticed how tired you feel when reaching a hilltop. This is because you have exerted more effort going up, and therefore have lost more calories.

Fitness experts and sports doctors actually use a formula to determine exactly how many calories are burned for a particular incline. However, this might be confusing, so Dr. Wright has devised a simpler computation for the average person. Typically, you will burn 10 percent more calories for every degree of incline. For example, if you run uphill on a 5-degree slope, that will already give you a 50 percent increase of calorie burn. If you want to double the calories that you burn, you need to run at a 10-degree incline.

Now, you don't have to let that hill stop your progress anymore.

Run a longer distance. This is a very logical yet very effective way to lose more calories when running. No matter how many miles you run, you still burn an average of 100 calories per mile. So the more miles you run, the more calories you can burn.

You have to be careful when increasing your distance though. Don't leap from 20 miles in one week to 100 miles the next week. A healthy increase is about 10 percent of your total mileage for every week. This is not hard but enough to make a significant increase in your calorie-burning rate.

THE 3 WORK-OUT PROGRAMS

We have prepared these 3 running schedules for you, and you can choose the one that will work best for you. These programs have all been proven to work. All programs also assume that you are already running 20 miles a week and builds up from there. You can choose to increase from 20 miles to either 30, 35 or 40 miles.

Whichever program you choose to go on, you will lose 5 pounds. Plan 1 will increase your distance by only 10 miles and it will take the longest time to lose 5 pounds. All of the programs will replace two of your regular runs with a speed run and a hill run. These two new workouts will let you burn 300 calories more every week.

Program 1: Lose 5 Pounds in 15 Weeks

Begin by increasing two of your runs by 1 mile each every week. You will also increase your running intensity slightly.

Distance: This 15-week-long program will raise your total weekly distance from 20 to 30 miles. This program is perfect for busy people who do not have a lot of time to spare for more rigorous training. Start by increasing your weekly distance by 10 percent, or 2 miles. Divide this equally between two of your regular runs. You will be adding miles to your total every week, and after the 5th week, one of your runs will be a lot longer than other. It's usually to schedule this longer run on the weekends.

Intensity: You've added miles to two of your regular runs. Now, increase the intensity of two of your other regular runs.

Workout Tip #1: During the middle part of one of your regular runs, include 10 moderate 1-minute sprints. Do not use your full effort, just increase your pace significantly and go back to regular speed after 60 seconds.

Workout Tip #2: Include uphill runs in one of your regular runs. You can do this on the treadmill with an adjusted incline. If you want to burn 100 more calories, you can do 2 flat miles and 2 miles on a 5-degree incline. Remember that for every degree of incline, you burn 10 percent more calories. You will have a slightly slower pace when doing the inclines, but don't worry, the increased effort will still enable you to burn the additional calories.

If there are no treadmills available, look for hills where you can run continuously run or where you make long repeats. Here is an easy way to determine a hill's incline. From the top of the hill, ride a bike downwards. Coast for 5 seconds then check the speedometer. Whatever speed you reach after 5 minutes is approximately the same as the hill's incline.

Program 2: Lose 5 Pounds in 12 Weeks

Just like the first program, you will increase two of your regular runs by 1-2 miles each, and also increase your running speed and add some hill runs..

Distance: In this program, your total distance will increase from 20 miles a week to 35. Do the same adjustments as in the first program. However, while Program 1 stopped the increases at the 5th week, here you will continue to increase your mileage until the 6th week.

Intensity: As in the first program, increase the intensity of your two other regular runs as well. You can do this by incorporating the two Workout Tips included in Program 1 into your weekly runs.

Program 3: Lose 5 Pounds in 11 Weeks

Again, you will need to increase two of your regular runs by 1-2 miles, and increase speed and intensity to the remaining 2 runs.

Distance: This is the most rigorous program among the three, and you will double your distance from 20 to 40 miles per week. After you finish this program, you will be fit enough to finish a marathon. The same increases apply to this program, but this time you keep increasing the distance until the 7th week.

Intensity: Increase the pace and intensity of your other two runs by including the two Workout Tips to your weekly routines, as explained in the first program.

Lose 5 pounds even faster with the following shortcuts:

1. Maximize your burning potential.
Running in itself will burn more calories than most of other physical activities. But you do burn calories no matter what you do. You can modify a lot of your daily routines in order to burn an additional 800 calories. If you are able to do this, you will lose 5 pounds considerably faster. You will actually finish Program 1 in 10 weeks, Program 2 in 9 weeks and Program 3 in 8 weeks.

2. Modify your food intake.
Although we promised that there is no dieting involved, we won't deny the fact that making some changes to your diet will speed up your weight loss. Making these reasonable changes will result in a calorie reduction of about 800 per week. Just like the first shortcut, this will make you lose 5 pounds faster. You will also finish Program 1 in 10 weeks, Program 2 in 9 weeks and Program 3 in 8 weeks.