Running Is Not Effective For Weight Loss

Have you ever wondered why you have been running all your life but your body does not seem to reflect that? This is because cardiovascular exercises like running are not the most effective way to lose weight!

For many years, people believed that cardiovascular exercises were the way to lose weight effectively. However, it is interesting to know that the type of exercise you perform actually does not matter as much as how intensely it is performed in order to see improvement on your body. Studies have shown that a few short minutes of extremely high intensity exercise with minimal rest time, repeated for several times, but will all be completed within half an hour actually had even more cardiovascular improvement than running itself. Also, a short period of but extremely intense body weight circuit exercise with minimal to no rest in between is more effective in helping you lose weight than long periods of running. If your goal is to complete more marathons, then go ahead with you running regimen. Otherwise, if you want to lose weight, then make use of body weight circuit exercises instead.

This also goes to say that, any physical activity which can help to increase your heart rate will help you in losing weight; and it does not necessarily have to be running. Even weight lifting can help you lose weight! As long as you always push yourself to near your maximum and keep rest periods in between sets as short as possible, you will be able to yield maximal fat loss results!

Let me now share with you some interesting findings; which I strongly believe that you will find shocking. A 2006 study has shown that regular runners, otherwise defined as runners who clocked the same weekly mileage each and every single year, actually gain body fat!

The reason this shocking phenomenon happens is because your body becomes very used to and efficient with all the repetitive activity every time you go for a run. This means that each time you run, your body will burn less calories than the previous time you ran. However, if you were to make use of a well-designed resistance training program instead, your body will never be able to successfully adapt to it. Thus, these workouts will still keep you burning calories and build lean muscle at the same time. The more lean muscle mass you have, the greater your metabolism rate; so this is always good for fat loss.