Running 30 minutes/day: Good Exercise?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I have GOT to lose 10–15 pounds. I am exactly the same height and weight as Delta Burke on her first season of “Designing Women,” and I see myself heading for Season II. I eat less and less, but that doesn’t seem to help, so I gotta (dammit dammit dammit) exercise, despite being a victim of LBS (Lazy Bitch Syndrome). I mean, what with J. Peterman out of business, I cannot afford to outgrow my chic wardrobe!

My best bet, I figure, is to get up an hour earlier and run for 30 min. every morning. I won’t do it after work (too tired, too hot out) and I can’t get to the gym on my lunch hour (too crowded).

So, all you gym-bunnies: will this plan up my metabolism (combined with eating less) to actually ditch that weight? Or shall I be forced to resort to at-home liposuction with a Hoover and a Bendy-Straw?

Oh, and any running tips?

2

Oh, I feel your pain. I’ve been doing power walking for two months now and find that it’s doing very little for me.
My sister, who is the fount of knowledge about these things, tells me that cardio workouts are great for you, but weight training motivates your muscles, which in turn helps your metabolism. She advised me to get some lighter weights and work them into my walking.
Always, too, remember to drink absurd amounts of water. I’ve heard that if you chase everything eaten or drunk with a glass of ice water, it will do wonders for your system. And I imagine the plumbing in your bathroom as well.
Good luck, whatever you do. And if the hoover/bendy-straw thing works, send me instructions.

3

Yes! Yes! Running will do wonders for you.
[ul]
[li]Get good shoes. Spend the money for them. Go to a store that specializes in running and have them fit you for shoes. You won’t regret it.[/li][li]In that vein, wear a good support bra. Not to get personal, but no sense hurting yourself if you don’t have to.[/li][li]Wear comfortable clothes. If you’re not comfortable in actual running shorts, any pair of sweatpant-type material pants will work just fine along with an old T-shirt.[/li][li]Start slow and short. The Boston Marathon this isn’t. Here’s a blurb from about.com on running. Increase your distances slowly but consistently.[/li][li]To burn the most calories, don’t eat 2 hours before or 2 hours after you exercise.[/li][li]Take time to stretch before and after you exercise. Your muscles are warm after you get done and you’ll help keep yourself from getting too tight if you stretch after.[/li][li]Most importantly, stay with it! Don’t give up! You’ll start seeing results within the first month and hopefully that will be encouraging.[/ul][/li]Personally, I hated running when I started, but I did it 'cause I was depressed. Now I love it. Sometimes I still have to make myself do it, but I’m always glad I do when I’m done.

After you get done running is also a good time to do a few push-ups and sit-ups since you’ll be all hot and sweaty.

Good luck! Keep us posted on how things go.

4

You bet it will help.

About five years ago, when I got sick of being about 30 lb overweight and flabby, I started working out. My routine at the time consisted of Stairmaster followed by lifting. I shed a good number of pounds but plateaued after a while.

Then I joined a gym with a treadmill (yes, the first gym had no treadmill) and I started using that. I shed even more pounds then, and more quickly than when I’d been using the Stairmaster.

One thing you want to watch out for is wear on your knees, hips, shins (Let’s see, where else have I hurt myself? Guess that’s it). So if you’re going to run, I recommend running just every other day and perhaps doing something low-impact exercise in between. For example, I alternate between running and using the elliptical trainer. I used to alternate running with the stationary cycle, but I get a better workout from the elliptical trainer.

In fact, if you were to use the elliptical trainer every day (don’t know if you plan to join a gym), you’d probably shed a good number of pounds without having to resort to that nasty high-impact running.

Good luck!

5

Eve:

I’ll do my best to give good advice. If you are just starting to run, thirty minutes a day will be difficult, frustrating, and you may injure yourself.

I’d recommend that you start 3 days a week, running for 20-25 minutes.

Try to go at a pretty good pace, and tire yourself out quickly. Slow down to a very fast walk when you need to, and when you feel ready, start again at a fast jog. Don’t push yourself to hard.

This strategy will do you more good and see faster improvement than if you just chug along at a crawling jog.

When you walk, walk fast, and keep your heartbeat elevated.

Don’t push yourself. Rest one day after each day you do this. Once you feel that you can run for the whole 25-minutes, you’ll be ready to pick up the pace of your training.
I’ve helped a lot of people get into running, and I can’t stress enough the importance of starting slow and not overdoing it.

I would also recommend that you do not diet at all during this phase.

The goal here is to step up your metabolism, and get your body muscularly and cadiovascularly into shape. If you diet now you’ll impede both your progress in terms of getting into shape, and your ability to lose weight once you do. You do not want your body to go into starvation mode.

You don’t want to overdue because your cardiovascular system will improve very quickly. You’ll feel good, but your muscles won’t be ready to keep up with the rest of you.

Your goal should be to build up slowly so that your running between 2-5 miles a day (light day, heavy day alternation) 5 days a week.

If you eat regular portions of healthy food, and don’t try to starve yourself, this should work like a charm, and as you build into the running the weight will just melt off.

It takes time to build up to this point though, but it’s well worth it. Don’t get frustrated at the slow progress you’ll face for the first 2-4 weeks.

Be sure and stretch out before and after you run. Be sure and buy yourself a pair of running shoes, and wear them around for a day before you run in them.

Any other questions, let me know. I’d be glad to help.

Oh, and if you have any medical conditions or issues see a Dr. before listening to my advice. It’s probably a good idea anyway.

6

BunnyGirl

Holy crap, I never knew this. Thanks! (Now, will I be able to go five hours without eating anything?)

7

Three words: Body For Life. Worked for me. I lost 45 lbs, and FAST. All the while eating like a damn horse.

8

It will help quite a bit, not just with your weight goals, but you after a few weeks you will find you have more energy as well. BunnyGirl and ** Scylla** already told you most of what you need to know. I would just add: don’t so much concentrate on the time, but pick an interesting coarse of the correct distance for you and make a point of completing it in reasonable fashion without hurting yourself (say maybe 2-2.5 miles for a beginner). You can add distance and/or better your time after you have gotten into the swing of things. Also consider a sports walkman, helps cut down on the boredom.

9

Eve:

You and I have matched a number of times mentally on the boards and running really worked for me for whatever that’s worth. I get the hunch that you haven’t worked out for quite a while. So you might start with maybe 10 minutes a day and add 30 seconds every other day to sort of ease into it. It gets up there quickly enough.

I went from 200 pounds to 150.

10

Running is absolutely wonderful if you are trying to lose weight.

Exercise and diet are the only two things that will get and keep the weight off. Also, your mentality; there is no way to cheat the system. Don’t go running for 30 minutes then tell yourself that since you ran you can cheat and eat. Stay away from breads(crackers, cereal, pasta, and any other carbohydrates) and beef! They are typically the most fattening thing you can find in the supermarket, except for canned lard of course. :smiley:

If you are running and your heart isn’t pumping and you aren’t sweating then you aren’t doing a damn thing. No pain no gain, and that’s a fact.

If you find that you are getting a workout but your joints are killing you, STOP IMMEDIATELY. Join a club and work out for ten or fifteen minutes on a rowing machine, possibly a better exercise than running(upper and lower body) and is much better on your joints. Take a break, do ten or fifteen reps(1/2 to 2/3 of your max lift) on a weight machine, any one will do(legs, arms, whatever). Then resume for another ten or fifteen minutes on the rowing machine. Do that three times, five minute break max.

If your muscles ache at first, work through it. It is only a temporary and working out will actually make it feel better.

Getting in shape is a serious thing and cannot be accomplished half-assedly, you can try but it won’t work.

Remember no breads or carbs and only chicken and fish, and only small portions at that. If you want to get full, eat a large salad, as big as you want, and use only fat free dressing or a light oil and vinegerette, maybe a lowfat caesar.

If you do eat carbs make sure your workout is extra serious. They are most important for endurance(along with a little protein, but don’t over do it because if you forget to work out it will go straight to your ass, pardon my French). Proteins are for muscle building, if you want to get “bigger”.

If you have any specific questions feel free to email me.

11

Others have already given some good advice. Though personally, I’d leave the Walkman at home. You have better awareness of your surroundings when you can hear, so it’s safer. I wouldn’t skimp on the carbs either (in fact, I’d load up on 'em), but admittedly I train more for race performance (I run triathlons) than weight loss, so maybe it’s different in your case. I would also recommend some sort of cross-training if possible. Swimming is a good complement to running - it works different muscle groups but still has some cardio crossover. And don’t run every single day, your body needs rest to recover and it’s during this recovery that the fitness improvements actually take place. Take at least a day or two off per week. Finally, your probably going to feel like crap for the first week or two. Don’t let that discourage you, your body just isn’t used to running yet.

If you have trouble motivating yourself, try entering a road race. Pick a short one (5k is a good distance for a beginner) a few months away and train for that. That way, you have a goal to work towards. Don’t go for speed, just build up your endurance base so you can finish and still look good afterwards. This web site has a good training program for beginners.

12

Gotta strongly disagree with you wishbone.

“No carbs” is a fashionable battle cry, but it’s not good practice. Your body needs Carbs. There’s nothing wrong with red meat either.

The whole key is moderation. “The middle path,” as Buddha says.

I usually eat whatever my body craves, and that’s what I recommend. Your body knows what it needs, and it will let you know. You’re usually wise to listen to it.

If you eat sensibly, and eat good well-rounded meals in modest proportions, dieting isn’t necessary to lose weight.

Just don’t eat junk.

You get to the point where you are running 20-30 miles a week it’s very difficult to be seriously overweight. Your body just won’t let you.

I also disagree about the “no pain no gain,” thing.

Especially in the early stages the whole point is to build your body up and condition it to exercise, to accelerate the metabolism. Pushing things too fast on an unconditioned body is a great way to hurt yourself.

And, I’ll tell you that when I run, I never exert myself to the point of exhaustion. It’s dangerous and stupid.

The smartest thing to do is get your body in a zone of elevated heartbeat/respiration and sustain it for 20 minutes or more. That steps up your metabolism. There’s no reason to hurt yourself doing it.

Finally, rowing machines can be murderous on your back, and they always made my ass hurt.

The best torture device I know of is the versaclimber. I use that in the winter to keep fit.

13

How about a nice long walk or a swim? They are easier to do if you are starting this stuff.

Also of course, eat less.

14

Running is absolute murder on your ankles and knees, I would recommend a stair stepper, swimming, inline skating, biking.

15

You’ve gotten some great advice here, particularly (IMO) from BunnyGirl and Scylla.

For me, and I think for a lot of people, simply dieting just doesn’t work. My success story occurred after the birth of my first child. I lost most of my pregnancy weight, but couldn’t shed the last 5 pounds, no matter how much I starved myself. I joined a gym and started taking an exercise class-one hour of aerobics plus a half hour of free weights three times per week. While doing this, I ate healthily, but did not “diet”, per se. Over the course of 6 months, I lost 10 pounds and two dress sizes. What was amazing were the muscles I developed. Not scary muscles, but definition that had never been there before.

Now, over the last 10 years or so, during which I had 3 more children and a couple serious depressive episodes, I managed to put on 30 pounds I don’t need. With my youngest fairly self-sufficient at this point, I am finally working toward getting my body back, which leads me to the point I wanted to make. (Yes, there is one!)

If you have been fairly sedentary up until now, starting a workout program will require you to build muscle. Because you may be adding quite a bit of new muscle while you shed the fat, the numbers on your scale may not move much at first. Pay more attention to how your clothes fit and how you look in the mirror.

I have been at this for almost 3 months now. I started out barely able to run a full mile. Now I can run 5 miles in 45 minutes. Though I have lost only 5 pounds, according to the scale, the change in my body shape is obvious, so that is what I try to pay more attention to. Though it is hard to stay away from the scale, I know my efforts are paying off, and that is what counts.

Good luck!

16

I have to disagree with a couple of the posters. Running is not bad for your knees and ankles if you have no prior injuries and you are sensible.

Get good shoes. Don’t over do it to start. And, stick to softer surfaces whenever possible. A treadmill is easier then anything. If your knees or ankles start to ache then slow down. They will catch up to you over time. I can’t stress enough that you should start slow.

You might want to check out http://www.kicksports.com and http://www.newrunner.com These two sites have tons of articles and information on how to start out and how to keep going. The Couch to 5K program at kicksports is especially good.

If you find that you don’t enjoy running then don’t feel bad. Pick something else you do enjoy. Life is too short to spend 30 minutes a day doing something you hate.

Good Luck!

17

Crucial if you’re not a natural runner is a walkman or mini disc player. You’ll cover the distance more easily if (depending on how your mind works) you’re distracted by the morning news bulletins or pumped up by the Ride of the Valkyries. A taped recording of a rabied Rottweiler turned to the max might also get those high heels tripping along quite well.

Find a breathing rhythm (no matter how slow to begin with) and stay with that – get in your natural groove.

18

From what I’ve read, the best way to burn fat while running is to run at a pace where you can have a conversation and not have to gasp for air. FWIW.

Personally, I run about 5.5 miles 4 times a week. It makes me feel like all is right with the world. I hate it if I don’t get to run for a couple of days.

Just starting out, running can feel rough. Just hang in there. You’ll dig the endorphins.

BTW, Zumba had some great ideas. (Just had to put in a plug for my fellow cat.)

19

I don’t use a walkman, but I do zone out on interior fantasies when I run.

Today, I made use of some stitches I got, and pretended that I had been shot and was excaping across the desert (it was hot.)
But then I’m pretty weird.

20

What I try to do is run one day, lift weights the next. Weights will help up the metabolism too, building muscle will help burn calories. 3/week for both will be good for you. I throw in some nighttime cycling now that it’s summer up here too for fun, when it’s not too hot. I do the running and lifting before work.

And stay away from Ernie Keebler and his bredren (well, one won’t hurt, and look out for flying chips) :wink: