What, specifically, is the correlation between running and weight loss?
New research shows that running helps with weight loss – but only to a certain point. The silver lining, though, is that regularly running can prevent fat or weight gain from creeping back up.
Researchers from the University of Jyväskylä in Finland have published these findings in the journal Frontiers.
While the evidence shows that running is an effective way to maintain healthy fat mass, it doesn’t mean that an all-running regimen is the best way to stay in shape.
Instead, a balanced approach – one that combines endurance activities such as running with strength or resistance training – is preferable, according to Simon Walker, a lead study author and an academy research fellow at the university.
“For the general population that wants to do a bit of both, two to three sessions each of endurance and resistance training every week is likely a very good recommendation in general,” Walker, a docent in exercise physiology from the Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences at the university, told Medical News Today.
“The frequent exercise sessions of four to six times per week is also highly effective for reducing body fat – much better than blasting yourself twice a week and doing not much else for the rest of the week,” he added.
Strength versus endurance
Researchers pulled data from larger cohort studies that analyzed younger (ages 20 to 39) and older (ages 70 to 89) physically active males. Competitive sprinters, runners, and strength athletes, along with non-competitive but still active men were all accounted for.
Walker said that he and his colleagues anticipated that strength athletes would have more muscle mass and that endurance athletes would have low body fat with lower muscle mass. While the data proved this to be true, he did say that it was somewhat surprising that most endurance athletes – even in the older cohort – still had muscle mass above the sarcopenia threshold,…
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