Because obesity can lead to many adverse health outcomes and conditions such as type 2 diabetes, musculoskeletal problems, cardiovascular disease, and even increased risk of colon or breast cancer, most of us are interested in any way we can keep excess weight off.
While nothing impacts weight management more than a healthy diet, a close second measure that’s proven to be helpful is getting plenty of exercise.
This is especially the case with aerobic exercises like swimming, cycling and jumping rope, notes Dr. Michael Fredericson, director of the physical medicine and rehabilitation division of Stanford University. But he says that few aerobic exercises provide as many all-around benefits as running – with one of its top advantages being that it can help melt away excess fat.
What are the health benefits of running?
Running can be helpful in reducing cardiovascular disease risk, improving mental health and lowering risks of various types of cancer, explains Brad Schoenfeld, an exercise science professor at Lehman College of the City University of New York.
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Fredericson adds that, because running is a weight-bearing exercise, it can also be helpful in maintaining strong bones “and can strengthen your lower extremity muscles.” These strengthened muscles can also improve your posture and balance.
Running has also been shown to promote a more restful night’s sleep, and can provide improved immunity against sickness and many chronic illnesses. Other research shows that running can improve cognitive function and memory as well.
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Can running help you lose weight?
But perhaps the most desired outcomes associated with running are maintaining a healthy body weight and physical fitness levels. “A lack of physical activity is a key risk factor for obesity and running is an ideal and efficient way to burn calories and increase metabolic rate to improve weight management,” says Dr. Danielle Ponzio, an orthopaedic surgeon at the Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia.
She explains that one of the ways it does this is by creating a caloric deficit between the number of calories that are burned and the number of calories that are eaten. “Because running can help you burn more calories than you consume, it helps with weight-loss goals,” she says.
Running and other high-intensity exercises have also been shown to suppress appetite by releasing a chemical compound known as Lac-Phe – a combination of lactate and phenylalanine. This can help you avoid overeating.
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Does running burn fat?
Running’s ability to burn fat is another way the exercise can be helpful with weight loss. This occurs because “body fat is a source of energy used both during and after exercise,” explains Schoenfeld – and when you expend this energy, “it results in a greater amount of fat burned.”
Ponzio adds that this energy expenditure not only occurs while running, but post-exercise as well, through a process called excess post-exercise oxygen consumption. “It takes time for the body to replenish energy used from taxing physical activities like running,” she explains, “so, after a workout, the body burns calories at a slightly elevated level.”
Another factor is the flood of adrenaline that occurs when you first start running – because it stimulates the release of fat from cells, which are then broken down by the movements. One caveat to this extra boost,”is that your body accommodates to this stimulus level after a month or two of running,” says Fredericson; “so, you’ll want to add more high-intensity training (HIIT) with interval or tempo runs to continue the fat-burning process.”
Above all, it’s important not to neglect a balanced diet. “As the saying goes, you cannot ‘outrun’ a bad diet,” cautions Schoenfeld. “Although exercises like running can assist in weight management, you must perform a lot of exercise to have meaningful effects on body weight,” he says. “That’s why avoiding overeating combined with exercise is the best approach to long-term weight management.”
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