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Will Running Burn Belly Fat? How to Burn Fat Without Running Yourself Crazy

 

Will running burn belly fat?

Yes.

Will it take more time than you might have to spare?

Yes!

But you might be wondering:

How much fat will running burn, and how many hours a week am I going to have to do it?

 

As it turns out you can burn belly fat from running (if you also eat the right foods)

 

In today’s post I’m going to show you…

1) How much fat you can burn by running, and how much time it will take

2) How to burn belly fat without running until your feet bleed

 

How much fat is burned by running depends on a lot of things. Like how many calories you eat in a day, what kinds of calories you eat and how many calories you burn without even trying. Also, how long and fast you run.

 

I will give you the formula to figure this out for your body and running level, but for now let’s use my old fat self as an example.

 

 

1) Figuring out BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate)

To make things simple, BMR is the amount of calories your body burns by doing nothing other than living and breathing. BMR can be figured out with regular math or by using a handy calculator.

I’m using a calculator to find out that my old BMR was 2146

That means that my body burns 2146 calories without me doing a single thing.

 

But here’s the deal:

 

I am going to be burning calories by running. But that BMR calculator also had an option for me to tell it how much I exercise. Since exercising burns more calories I picked the “moderately active” options.

I will still factor in my running in a minute.

 

2) Figuring out how many calories I burn from running:

There are tons of calculators that will figure out how many calories you can burn by running. I used this one to figure that if I ran 2 miles at a 15min/mile pace I burn a total of – 348 calories.

Even if you only run 2 – 3 miles a day, it’s more exercise than 95% of Americans are getting!

 

“Why aren’t you signed up for the 401K?”

“I’d never be able to run that far.”

Dilbert

 

3) Doing the math

I’m sure by now you may have heard the calories in vs calories out model for weight loss, right? This model basically says that if you burn more calories than you take in that you will lose weight.

 

But there’s a lot more to it than that. The type of foods that you eat matter too.

 

But for now, let’s just keep with this calorie model because it makes doing our math really easy. Losing weight..not so much though.

 

But you might be wondering…

How do I figure out how much belly fat I will lose from running?

Let’s figure it out now.

We know that one pound of fat is equal to 3,500 calories. We also know how to find out how many calories our body burns just by being alive and from running 2 miles. So now let’s see it in weight loss numbers.

 

But here’s the kicker:

If you ate this many calories every day and ran 2 miles and your BMR was close to what mine was, you would actually gain weight. Following the calories in vs. calories out model you would be eating 1276 more calories than you burn in a day.

In 1 week that would mean you will have an excess of 8932 calories, which in pounds is 2.5.

 

How can we fix this?

 

Most weight loss models will tell you that you have to eat less, or exercise more, or both. Which one sound like the most fun to you?

 

Let’s take a look at how much you will have to run if you eat like the average American to lose 2 pounds a week.

 

That didn’t work, did it? By running twice as far you will still be taking in 928 more calories than you are burning in a day. You will gain 1.8 pounds a week doing this!

 

So how much will you have to run to lose 2 pounds per week if you eat like the average American?

15 miles.

A day…

If you weigh 230-lbs and are a 6ft tall male who can run a mile in 15 min you will have to run 15 miles PER DAY to lose 2 pounds per week.

 And it’s going to take you close to 30 hours a week.

 

What’s the bottom line?

You do not have that kind of time to spare, do you?

 

I know what you are thinking though.

“But I don’t eat that many calories a day, so how much will I have to run?”

 

Great question, let’s figure it out.

If you are a 40 year old male and you want to maintain your weight (no loss, no gain) you would want to eat closer to around 2500 calories a day instead of almost 3800 that the average American is eating.

 

Let’s do some more fun math now…

2500 (calories eaten) – 696 (calories burned from running 4 miles) – 2146 (BMR) = A deficit of 342 calories per day, which will equal weight loss of 0.6 pounds per week.

 

Well…that didn’t work. I guess running 4 miles a day isn’t going to be enough again. Let’s see how much running you would need to do to lose 2 pounds a week.

 

2500 calories – X miles – 2146 (BMR)

X = 8 miles!

 

This is crazy!

If you are a 40 year old male and you eat the recommended amount of food that you should eat to lose weight, you will have to run 8 miles PER DAY to lose 2 pounds a week.

 

Here’s the bottom line:

Saying “eat less move more” sound really easy until you have to start doing it. I don’t know about you, but running 8 miles a day is pretty much the exact opposite of easy in my book.

Do you have time to run 8 miles a day?

 

Now:

This does not mean that you can’t lose weight by running. What I am trying to show you is that it is not easy.

If you don’t have the time or energy to run 8 miles a day, then you could cut down your calories even more. Does that sound fun to you?

Does it sound like something that you could do every single day for months?

If you have 50 pounds to lose you could end up running 8 miles a day, 7 days a week for 6 months to lose that weight!

How to lose 2 pounds a week running for 1 hour and cutting your calories.

You wanted to know if running will burn belly fat and I am going to show you how it can.

Here’s all you have to do.

 

 

Do you want to lose 2 pounds a week by running?

 

Here’s what this all means:

Losing weight by forcing it off (with any type of exercise) is definitely possible. Thanks to science you can figure out how many calories you need to eat and how long you need to run to do this.

 

But this is where all other guides stop and send you on your way.

But I won’t!

 

..Because I know that you probably do not:

1) Want to cut back on the amount of food you eat (especially if you will be exercising more)

2) Have time to run 4 miles a day (most people don’t)

 

 

Now, you might be wondering:

Aren’t plant based diets just another diet fad that don’t work? Won’t I be hungry all the time on a plant based diet? Won’t this suck?

No, no and no.

 

I ate a plant based diet and lost 70 pounds in 4 months. Without running one single mile. I also never counted a single calorie.

And I am not special. You can have great success too.

 

Here’s how:

 

1) Eat as many vegetables as you can shovel in your mouth.

The thought of doing this may not sound all that great right now, but trust me, you will learn to love it. Once you forget about weighing your food and counting every single calorie you are going to find a lot of freedom.

 

 

Vegetables are high in a wide range of vitamins, minerals and nutrients that your body needs. They are also full of the fiber that your body needs. And what does fiber do? it helps you feel fuller, longer.

And when you get used to eating them every day, you will realize how great they can taste.

 

2) Eat healthy fats

Avocados, nuts and seeds = healthy fat

Deep fried candy bar = unhealthy fat (and 4.5 teaspoons of sugar)

 

But you’re probably wondering:

Don’t fatty foods make you fat?

 

Can they? Yes. Will they? Only if you have an appetite like a gorilla!

 

When people talk about avoiding foods that are loaded with natural fats they always forget one major thing.

They are very filling.

Do you love guacamole as much as I do (I really love it)?

 

If you do, then try this experiment the next time you are feeling frisky. Get 2 medium sized avocados and turn them into guacamole however you make it.

 

And eat it all.

Not that easy, was it?

 

You just ate close to 800 calories, but could you see yourself eating another bucket full of guacamole (I understand if you think you can).

Would I be wrong to guess that after eating that much guacamole you probably don’t want more of it that day? Can you see yourself literally eating so many avocados that you become obese?

 I know it’s possible..but it is going to be hard.

 

Have you ever met an obese person and noticed the kinds of foods they eat?

Did they eat a lot of avocados and nuts? Or do they eat a lot of fast food, foods with added sugar and foods with hardly any nutrition?

 

I have never in my lifetime met an obese person who got that way from eating healthy fats.

 

3) Avoid sugar

Sugar is really getting a lot of negative attention these days. But why? Is it because it has “empty calories” or something else?

 

There are 2 kinds of people with 2 different opinions on what sugar does to your health.

1) People who have never tried to lose any significant amount of weight

2) People (like me) who cut sugar out of their diet and saw a ton of health benefits (70 pound weight loss + triglyceride lowering from 500 to 154)

 

Researchers are finding out that sugar in our diet is causing or at least contributing to a lot of health problems, like:

Heart disease

Insulin resistance

Obesity

Stroke

…and plenty more

 

What researchers are finding is that eating a diet high in added sugars is linked to obesity and a lot of other metabolic diseases. What me and my wife found is that cutting way down on added sugar in our diet helped us lose weight.

 

Without running 8 miles a day!

 

What’s the bottom line?

If you want to lose weight by running and cutting calories you can do it. People lose weight all the time by running, so it’s definitely possible.

“possible”…

But will it be fun? Will it take a little, or a lot of your time?

 

Running to lose weight is not easy for some people. It was very hard for me and it may not be easy for you. If you don’t have time to run 8 miles a day then you may want to think about eating differently.

And I don’t mean cutting or counting calories.

 

I know what you must be thinking though:

“What can I eat?”

Great question.

 

When I switched to a plant based diet my biggest problem was knowing what to eat. I am not great at cooking and using crazy ingredients, so I needed foods that are very simple to make.

 

So today you are in luck, because I found some awesome recipes that won’t cost a fortune to make and won’t take up your whole day.

 

You can eat meals like this and you can lose weight. You can try all sorts of different meals and ingredients, but here is a short list to get your mind buzzing about all of the possibilities.

 

And none of them have more than 10 ingredients. If you don’t have time to run 8 miles a day then you don’t have time to cook complex dishes.

 

Vegetarian Low Sugar Breakfast Recipes:

Blueberry cinnamon pancakes

Big sisters home fries

Blueberry oatmeal

Breakfast quinoa

Taffy apple green smoothie

 

 

Vegetarian Low Sugar Lunch Recipes:

Creamy Roasted Red Pepper Chili (Sorry, this has 12 ingredients but it looks awesome!)

Quinoa curry bowl

Stuffed baked potatoes

Veggie sandwich (this looks great)

BBQ cauliflower bites

 

Vegetarian Low Sugar Dinner Recipes:

Roasted spring veggie plate

Sweet potato and avocado sushi with stir fry veg

Portobello mushroom pizzas

Tex Mex tostadas

3 pepper stir fry

 

 

The real truth is that running to lose weight without eating properly, sucks.

It is not fun. It is a lot of work. It is very frustrating.

 

If you want to do it then I am proud of you. If you want an easier way, you may want to try the really simple tips I laid out for you above.

 

Have you lost a lot of weight from running? Or did you try (like me) and only end up with tired feet and a fat gut?

 

Let me know in the discussion below.