The race to lose weight is done without a diet

Many people choose running for weight loss, typically combined with a weight loss diet to double the results, or so they believe: actually, although running is one of the most weight-loss activities (burn about 700 calories in an hour) , beaten only by some sports (playing football, which however includes running), many are the people who start running every morning without dropping a pound. Some time ago an American nutritionist and fitness expert cited the example of a friend of his. He runs every day, he said, but he has a belly. And no matter how hard he tries, his belly doesn’t go down, so he’s an expert runner by now but running hasn’t allowed him to lose weight as he wanted. According to the nutritionist, he often runs and does it every day, which puts the body under considerable stress and risks overtraining.

The diet in this case would do more damage than anything else. An article published on DailyBurn explains that those who choose to lose weight by running absolutely must not go on a low-calorie weight loss diet (nor, of course, eat to compensate, as I explain here). Those who run to lose weight should not associate a restrictive and low-calorie diet with running, for two consequences. The first worsens the physical stress and the increase in cortisol in the blood , which lowers the metabolism of sugars and fats with the result that you run and cut calories, but the body thinks that you are going to war and is holding the flab. Second, but not to be underestimated, is that those who run at the end of training have the problem of compensating for the sense of hunger. The runner’s hunger is legendary, in English they call it ” runger “. It is the kind of hunger that makes it almost impossible to go on a diet and that causes any diet to be abandoned quickly or to binge occasionally.
Choosing running as an activity to lose weight, don’t get me wrong, most of the time it gives excellent results, if you choose to run 3 times a week, maximum 4, making sure the rest needed on the other days to allow muscle recovery; and with a balanced but not restrictive diet, always to allow muscle recovery. It is very important. The dietary strategies to take advantage of running to lose weight are essentially three: – diet + mild running three times a week

. In this case, running is like a normal low-intensity cardio activity. Useful to burn more and be active, but not a sports run. Instead, we focus on the diet chosen to lose weight.
– running as training + eat to live diet : healthy eating based on the choice of foods with high nutritional value: fruit and vegetables, fish proteins, meat and eggs, only whole carbohydrates, legumes, nuts and hazelnuts.
– running as training + low carb and normoproteic diet, ketogenic type with carbs cycling or low glycemic index diet. A diet that focuses on fat burning specifically, such as a ketogenic with carbs cycling (fat + protein day, fat + protein and low carb day + moderate carbohydrate day, or 5 days of keto and two carbohydrates) or a diet low glycemic index and basically low carb (reduce carbohydrates in favor of proteins or fats but without eliminating them completely, such as 60 grams of pasta or whole grains for lunch and just a slice of bread for dinner) or finally paleo with the choice of pseudocereals (quinoa, amaranth, buckwheat).