Have you ever seen a fat marathon runner? Me neither. To most people this is evidence enough that running in specific and aerobic exercise in general, is a great way to lose weight. Well it’s not. These guys are skinny because they spend so much time running, they don’t have time left to eat! Just kidding. If you want to run between 60-80 miles a week, you to can lose weight. But there might just be a more time efficient way.
Back a number of years ago I decided, basically on a dare, to train for, and run in, a marathon. I hate running. But a challenge was made and that was motivation enough. I figured it was at least a good way to finally drop the 25 pounds of flab I so desperately wanted too. The first of July I tipped the scales at 195 (I’m 5’9″ tall) and took off running. I scaled back my time in the weight room minute for minute as my running time per day/week increased. By mid October I was ready and ran in my first marathon, finishing with a time of 4:15. The day after the race I weighed myself for the millionth time and lo and behold, 195 pounds. All that running and I managed to lose not one pound.
Fast forward a few years to find myself still lifting regularly, but having scaled back running to only a couple times a week, and not very far. Then disaster struck. An injured shoulder would side line me from lifting for 3 months. I decided no lifting, no running, no nothing. But I also decided to keep from packing on pounds I would reduce my calorie intake by eliminating all calories from liquids. No sports drinks, no protein shakes, no milk, no beer. I lost 35 pounds. My body fat percentage was cut in half and my waist size decreased 4 inches.
Why?
I was benching close to double my body weight all this time, meaning I do have a fair amount of muscle mass as compared to my overall weight. Like most people, I carried around 20 pounds of flab on top of the muscle. When I trained for the marathon I kept lifting (though progressively less), eating and drinking at my normal levels for fear of losing muscle mass. Which I didn’t. But I didn’t lose any fat either. Which leads me to conclude the running did nothing for weight/fat loss. When I stopped doing everything, I still had my muscle mass, meaning my basil daily calorie level was still large (the amount of calories you can ingest and remain at a constant weight) so a reduction in calorie intake resulted in weight loss. Now I did lose muscle mass, but I lost twice as much fat. The point is no amount of aerobic exercise was going to cause me to lose weight.
Of course aerobic exercise is vital for cardiovascular fitness, and I strongly recommend it. But for weight loss? No way. Pick up some weights and put down the fork, unless you got the time and motivation to start running 80 miles a week.
Steve R. Robbins has been a life long fitness enthusiast. Has the distinction of being able to run a marathon and bench press twice his weight in the same day. All at the age of 50. Regular contributor to [http://www.MuscleandHealth.org]
