Chapter 7 "Running Life" - 6 running to lose weight

6 slim down Using the math to figure out how to look like a runner First, the good news: If you run, you will almost certainly lose weight, whether or not you change your eating habits.And, even if you're currently gaining weight, you'll start losing weight. Because runners burn far more calories than nonrunners, women typically lose ten to twelve pounds in their first year of running; men lose twenty pounds or more.A woman who runs, Kathleen Lance, said: "Shortly after I started running, my body changed completely. All my friends, athletes and not, always looked strong. I was the only one who Born weak, even as a teenager.

Then I started running and suddenly I wasn't weak anymore.It was a bizarre experience.I touched my body and it felt different.My posture has also improved.I may have lost ten pounds in my first year of running, but my clothes were shrinking in size even faster.Almost immediately I looked much slimmer.I went down from a size fourteen to a size ten. " Now for the bad news: Unless you're already fairly thin, the weight you lose won't be enough to make you a really good runner.A good runner is surprisingly thin.At a recent meeting of long-distance runners, an observer looked around the room and said in disbelief, "Some of you look like lean chickens good for soup." He's right that a runner in good shape can weigh no more than two pounds per inch of height.Men should not exceed this standard by five to ten percent; women should not exceed fifteen to twenty percent. (For the average person who is not an athlete, about 15 percent for men and 22 to 35 percent for women.) The former Olympic long-distance runner Ted Corbett said: "When people say how solid you look, you can be sure that you are not qualified. As long as you are not thin, you are not qualified." The one mentioned in the second chapter advocates oxygen exercise Dr. Alan Clark, who does not advocate sedatives, said to me after six months of running, "My friends came to my wife secretly, worried about my weight loss, and asked me if I was sick. How long. The explanation she gave — that I was a long-distance runner — would confuse them.”

Let's say you weigh more than ten pounds under your life insurance policy.You look good in your clothes.The only time you look slightly bloated around the waist is when you're taking your clothes off or wearing a bathing suit.So is the ten pounds worth worrying about?Unfortunately, it's worth worrying about.After the age of forty-five, the mortality rate for those over 10 pounds rises by 8 percent.The mortality rate increased by 18 percent if you weighed more than 20 pounds; 28 percent if you weighed more than 30 pounds; and 56 percent if you weighed more than 50 pounds.The strong relationship between body weight and health can be seen from a study conducted ten years ago in Alameda County, California.Researchers asked 6,928 adults a series of questions to judge their past and current health status, as well as their eating, sleeping, smoking, drinking and exercising habits.The answers to the two sets of questions were compared.The researchers report, "Being overweight - especially when overweight is significant - was significantly associated with poor health. Men who were between 5 percent underweight and 19.99 percent overweight The health status was the most favorable. As for women, those who were underweight or less than ten percent overweight were slightly healthier than average."

For all its complexity, the human body is surprisingly simple in one respect: it's an exact calorie counter.It records your calories in exactly the same way a bank records your deposits.If you put in more calories than you expend, you will gain weight.If you spend more than you save, you lose weight.So if you want to lose weight, you have to eat less and exercise more, or both. Oddly enough, the first possibility had the least effect.In a recent study, Dr. Grant Gwenhope of the University of California, Irvine, talked about the futility of dieting alone to treat overweight.So, as an experiment, he decided to try it with exercise alone.He selected eleven overweight women, some of whom had been obese all their lives, weighing between 134 and 218 pounds.All eleven had tried dieting in the past, with temporary success at best.Gwen Earp told them not to change their diets at all, but in addition to doing what they normally did, take a brisk walk for thirty minutes or more each day.During the first year of doing this, the average weight loss was twenty-two pounds.

Another study by Drs. W. B. Judy and Drs. L. A. Golding was carried out on twenty-five women aged from their mid-twenties to their forties, all of whom were overweight Up to forty pounds.The women were divided into three groups.The three groups cut 500 calories per day, but in different ways, according to the basic rules of the study.The first group used only diet, the second group only exercised, and the third group used both diet and exercise.After sixteen weeks, the three groups lost 11.7, 10.6 and 12 pounds, respectively.Although the group that used both methods lost more weight, the difference was not statistically significant.Significantly, the group that used the combined approach lost more fat and gained correspondingly more fat-free tissue than the other two groups.Judy and Goldin concluded: "Based on these data, we recommend that those wishing to lose weight use a combination of reduced calorie intake and a physical activity program."

In some ways, the idea of ​​exercising to lose weight may seem strange, even illogical.For example, running does not increase one's appetite.Conversely, running often also reduces appetite.According to one researcher: "Exercise may be an appetite suppressant rather than a stimulant." This phenomenon is supported by studies in animals: Animals that exercised for an hour a day ate less than those that did not exercise at all. Also surprisingly, how fast or slow you run has little effect on how many calories you burn.A 150-pound person burns 102 calories running an eight-minute mile, while the same person burns 98 calories* running a twelve-minute mile.Some research reports also suggest that the length of your legs or how big your stride doesn't have a big impact on the calories you burn.It doesn't even matter if you're a world-class runner or just starting out, though the mechanical efficiency of a good runner is slightly greater than that of a newcomer.

Notes: * Much more important than your running speed is your weight.A 220-pound person burns 150 calories running a mile in eight minutes, while a 120-pound person burns only 82 calories running the same distance at the same pace.Calories burned for other weights are as follows: 130 pounds, 90 calories; 14,000 pounds, 98 calories; 160 pounds, 110 calories; 170 pounds, 110 16 calories; 180 pounds, 124 calories; 190 pounds, 130 calories; 200 pounds, 136 calories; 210 pounds, 140 Four calories. It's not difficult to figure out how much weight you'll lose by running, and how quickly you'll be able to do it.Assume that you currently weigh 180 pounds. After the initial exercise period, you usually run five miles a day. When you weigh 180 pounds, you burn 124 calories every eight minutes when you run a mile. , you burn 620 calories for every five miles you run.Your body - indeed anyone's -

You need to absorb 3,500 calories for every pound you gain, and you need to lose 3,500 calories for every pound you lose.So, depending on how fast you run, you'll lose one pound every five and two-thirds days, or about five pounds per month, if you're eating the same number of calories. (Since you burn fewer calories per mile as you lose weight, you'll have to make some adjustments to the calculations over time.) Eventually, of course, your weight will stabilize.Exactly how many pounds your weight stabilizes depends on how much you eat and how far you run.When I started running, I lost weight very quickly.Before long I had to take all my clothes to a tailor to have them altered.Simply wonderful!I eat and drink as much as I want and still lose weight.Out of ignorance, I thought this would continue until I was nothing more than a skeleton.Before long, however, the rate of weight loss slowed, and I ended up at 170 pounds—down from my original weight, but still 20 pounds more than my ideal weight of 142 pounds. a few pounds.

No doubt you will encounter situations like this.For a while, you'll lose weight effortlessly, but eventually, sadly, your weight will stop dropping.That's when you need to get really wise and make up your mind.Sure, you can run, even race, while still weighing a lot more than your ideal weight.But you will never reach the limit of what you can possibly be.A while ago, Runner's World published an article that explained what extra pounds can do when you're running.An example given in the article is a runner who weighed 161 pounds and ran a marathon in 3 minutes and 13 seconds.His weight had dropped to one hundred and forty-seven pounds.With no other changes to his exercise program, he ran another marathon in 3:4.26.In other words, every extra pound costs two-thirds of a minute.That might not sound like much, but it adds up to a big difference.

Excess pounds can make you run slower for several reasons.If the energy expended remains the same, your steps will be shorter.Assume your stride is only an eighth of an inch shorter.If your feet hit the ground 800 times per mile, that adds up to a difference of 100 inches—more than 8 feet.In a ten-mile race, you'll be about eighty feet behind a similarly exercised, healthy-weight person. The extra weight also means that, because your body is governed by Newton's laws, it takes more time each time you change from a downward to an upward movement.Notice how a fat man runs.One reason he or she runs so clumsily is that with each step he or she takes, the rest of the body is already moving upward, while the excess weight is still halfway down the descent.Fat always tends to keep the motion in the same direction, only valuable energy can make it change direction.So fat acts as an anchor, slowing down every step.

Finally, excess pounds aren't limited to growing on the outside of your body.Some also grow internally, lodged in the muscle, preventing the fibers in the muscle from moving efficiently.By the way, this is true even if your excess pounds are nothing more than a temporary increase in water.For this reason, medical experts recommend avoiding certain foods for about three days before competing. The Journal of the American Medical Association lists these foods as follows: Salt, monosodium glutamate, all salty foods, shredded pickles, crackers, Worcestershire sauce, sausage, anchovies, bread and rolls with salt on their skins, potato chips, cornmeal and other salty snacks, pretzels , bacon, salted fish and smoked fish, bacon and bacon fat, bologna, beef jerky and corned beef, herring, sardines, cheeses of all kinds, peanut butter, salted nuts, popcorn, olives, consommé powder, Bread rolls with smoked sausage, ham, kosher meat, luncheon meat, bacon, ground pork, mustard, relish, ketchup, pickled celery, pickled shallots, pickled garlic, Worcestershire sauce, horseradish (Horseradish), canned soup, homemade brie, pickles, soy sauce, instant cocoa, dry cereal. How, exactly, can you continue to lose weight after your weight has stabilized?Remember, to lose weight, you must burn more calories than you take in.As mentioned above, you can eat less, run more, or both.The following table will illustrate the effect of doing so. The Runner's Diet Sheet A Note on Mathematics and Physiology 1. Calories needed per day Desired weight____x15=____ (in pounds) +miles run____xl00＝ Total 1=____ 2. Calories eaten per day Calories from a normal diet =__ + Additional Calories for Runner =__ (must be less than the number on line 2 under "Calories per day") Total 2=____ 3. Daily calorie deficit Total 1=____ -Total 2=____ =total3=____ 4. Speed ​​of weight loss 3,500/total 3 = the number of days it takes to lose one pound 5. Time required to reach predetermined weight goal The number of days it takes to lose one pound____ x total pounds to lose____ (according to the number above) =____ (total number of days), Let's say you want to get to one hundred and fifty pounds.Since it takes fifteen calories per pound of body weight to maintain, if you're not a runner, your daily intake of two thousand and two hundred and fifty calories is appropriate.Suppose you run six miles a day. Since each mile burns about one hundred calories, multiply the number of miles you run by one hundred. (If you're significantly under or above average weight, adjust for the number of calories per mile given in the "Runner's Diet" table.) We call this number the runner's extra needs— — That's the extra calories you burn each day because you're a runner rather than a person standing still -- plus the calories you basically need. Now we come to the diet part of the equation.In the "calories from a normal diet," add "desired weight x 15" (2,250 in this example).On the bottom line add an amount less than the runner's extra calories.Let's say 100.Add these two numbers together and you get the total number of calories you will allow yourself to gain each day.Note that this amount, while smaller than the number of calories you consume, is still enough to provide a completely adequate, even filling, meal. (And, if you balance your bills properly, there are extras like cake, beer, or the occasional whiskey or brandy with ginger ale.) We can stop here because you can be sure that as long as you eat fewer calories than you burn, you will lose weight.But let's see how quickly you lighten up.In the above example, the third equation indicates that you will be short of 500 calories per day.Put that number into the fourth equation to see how many days it will take you to lose a pound.In this example seven days.So how many days does it take to reach the 150 lbs you want?Of course this will depend on your current weight.Let's say you've been running for a while, and instead of weighing 180 pounds, you now weigh 170 pounds.You want to lose another twenty pounds.Then you need 7x20, which is 140 days-about four and a half months.Please note that the speed of weight loss I listed is not the fastest.This is exactly what many doctors recommend to their patients who need to lose weight.A daily deficit of five hundred calories equals a can of yoghurt and two slices of bread lightly spread with jam.If you want to lighten up faster, you probably can do it without much effort. Also, I only mentioned one way - eating less - to throw the equation out of balance.You can also throw the equation off balance by adding running.For example, if you run an extra two and a half miles a day—just an extra twenty minutes or so—you'll burn an extra 7,500 calories a month, or a little over two pounds.Even if you don't eat a single calorie less than you are now, you will lose twenty pounds just as surely as you did with the first method. (If you do both—eat less and exercise more—you'll lose weight at the same rate.) If you want to run fast, try not to settle for a "normal" weight.Frank Short, who won an Olympic gold medal in the marathon in 1972, was five feet ten and a half inches tall, scrawny, and weighed only 134 pounds.Bill Rogers was five feet eight and a half inches and weighed one hundred and twenty-five pounds.Another top runner, Jeff Galloway, said, "I'm a firm believer that the thinner you are, the faster you run."