One of the most effective ways to burn calories and lose weight is running
. Over time your body will adapt to the intensity of your usual exercise routine and the amount of calories burned will decrease. Therefore, it is important that you add variety to your running routine. This will enable you to stretch your body to enable it to be more effective at burning more calories.
Here are a few suggestions to help you get started:
By raising the intensity of your running workouts you use up more calories. You can do this in a number of ways for example, you can begin to increase the speed of your running over certain distances. By raising the intensity you will need more energy to produce the power to go faster, more power means more calories need to be burned. As well as increasing the intensity through speed you can also burn extra calories by increasing the endurance of your running routines. For example, if you are use to running or jogging on the flats then, include a few hill runs or gradients to build up your strength and stamina.
If mostly run indoors on a treadmill then you will be able to burn more calories if you include a couple of outdoor running sessions. When you are outdoors you will be challenged more due to the uneven surfaces, hills and urban obstacles that you will have to jump over. There are also the weather conditions such as the wind and rain which will make your running more challenging. This means that you will have to run harder which results in you burning more calories.
By including interval training into your running routine you will help to burn more calories. Interval training is described as rotating between higher and faster speeds. The lower speeds are used as recovery points however, to experience the full benefits of interval training your should not stop between the recovery periods. This type of exercise works the heart and cardiovascular system and is a very effective way to burn more calories. A simple way to start is to start off as running at a slow pace for about a minute then, run the following minute at a high pace and the next at a slow pace and so on.
Although exercising is important you should do it in conjunction with eating a healthy well balanced diet that should include low fat nutritious foods.
Always consult your physician if you have a health condition before changing or doing any form of new exercise.