Running to Lose Weight
Are you running to lose weight? If so, you're not the only one! I found an excellent podcast by Karen Hopkin that compared the effectiveness of different exercises in suppressing appetite.
For runners, Karen suggests the good news is (according to the American Journal of Physiology) aerobic exercise like running affects not one but two different hormones that suppress appetite.
This is good news for runners, no matter how brainy we might think we are! When our hormones concur with our will - our conscious minds - we find our goals are a lot easier to achieve...
Weight Training and Diet
On the other hand, recent research has some bad news for weight lifters, however: Weight training only influences one hormone involved in appetite...
Researchers in the U.K. compared 11 male university students as they either
- jogged for one hour -or-
- spent 90 minutes lifting weights
The researchers found two appetite controlling hormones were affected by running to lose weight and only one appetite controlling hormone was affected by weight lifting. Based on the evidence the research suggested running is better than weight lifting for appetite suppresses purposes.
Weightlifters - Don't Jump!
Don't dispair if you are a weightlifter! Karen does note that both running and weightlifting suppress appetite, even if running is a better appetite suppressant.
Ms. Hopkin notes dumbbells can be an excellent weight loss device: take them to parties and buffets and do not put them down! As long as you're holding a dumbbell you're not noshing an eggroll!
Different Exercise Affects Appetite Differently
Seriously, I think that at a very fundamental level any exercise is better than no exercise - even if the exercise if very "mild". Running to lose weight is a great way to exercise, but any exercise is helpful.
Muscle specific and core strengthening exercises like weight training are in fact effective at converting passive ugly fat to metabolising muscle. Keep in mind the ugliest fat we posess is not the fat we see - it's the dense, yellow, internal fat packed around our organ that's the real danger.
Any exercise burns calories, and we know from our lab rat friends that activity helps us burn fat faster!
Weight Bearing Exercise Advantages
Anyone who knows me know I do a lot of rowing. Rowing and running to lose weight are both great sports, and both are excellent ways to develop cardio fitness. Well, I can assure you these exercises have a very different affect.
Rowing, whether indoor or on water, is a power sport. Competitively, rowing is an explosive exploitation of all the body's energy stores over a relatively short (often only 2000 M) distance. Heavier, more muscular rowers have an advantage of their skinny rowing cousins! That's why rowing has competitive weight classes. Heavier, more powerful rowers have an advantage of lighter rowers.
There's no weight classes in serious running. Why? Because running is a weight bearing exercise. More weight can mean more muscle, but more weight always means the runner has to spend more energy hauling that weight around! Even if the extra weight is lean muscle! That fact is at the root of why running to lose weight is effective.
Check out Tips4Running for some great tips on how effectively run and lose weight - including some great motivational advice!
Body Intelligence
What the body learns from workouts.
Somehow, our bodies figure this out. A competitive rower's body learns during rowing workouts how important muscle mass and strength really are. A runner's body learns a little different lesson: lean muscle and a light weight are paramount.
Bottom line - while all exercises are beneficial weight bearing sports like running to lose weight are most effective for overall weight loss!
That's summary of topic!
And don't forget...
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