Jogging and long distance running is often the first route many people go down when trying to lose body fat and get into better shape.
But is it actually the fastest way to shed that unwanted body fat?
There is significant research which points to the fact that steady state cardio vascular work, like jogging, can be an effective way for someone to lose weight when they are new to exercise and have been living a relatively sedentary lifestyle before starting to do cardio work.
The reasons for this are that going from not exercising to jogging/running for any distance or time will increase the amount of calories that your body burns in the day. Due to training, your body increases its sensitivity to insulin (the fat storage hormone), meaning you may tolerate carbohydrates and use them in a more efficient way. Also your body makes changes to the way you produce energy, opting to use body fat for energy over carbohydrates.
However, eventually the results will drop off and the fat loss may slow to a complete halt. This is because your body adapts to the exercise you are doing; this happens with running and cardiovascular exercise in particular because it is aerobic exercise (meaning that energy is produced under the presence of oxygen).
Your body learns to utilise the oxygen more for energy and uses less body fat. So, to get desirable fat loss results over a prolonged period you will need to increase either the speed that you are running at or the distance you run for. For the majority of people, the choice will be distance as increasing speed can be a lot harder than increasing the distance you run for, bit by bit.
This can cause issues for fat loss, as after 42 minutes of exercise your body will have an increased production of a hormone called cortisol (stress hormone). This hormone will cause havoc with your fat loss results as one of its main functions is to elevate blood sugar levels. The elevation in blood sugar levels then causes a release of insulin (fat storage hormone), which can prevent you from burning fat.
Having high cortisol levels combined with cardiovascular activity causes the body to store fat, because your cells become less sensitive to insulin. This is called insulin resistance - meaning that your body will not tolerate carbs well and is more likely to store them as fat. This also causes inflammation and "locks" the fat stores so the body cannot burn fat for energy.
Add this to the fact that many people who run for long distances can tend to over eat high glycemic carbohydrates before, during and after running. This is because prolonged bouts of exercise can cause increased hunger levels and there is a great amount of information available that states as a runner you should eat plenty of pasta and bread so you have substantial energy to perform such activity.
Be aware that eating plenty of pasta, bread and other high glycemic carbs will help you store energy, as body fat.
If you really enjoy running and want to continue to do so and make sure that you are burning fat, the best option in regards to running would be to do intervals. You will burn more overall calories in less time and you will also experience a higher calorie burn in the 24 hours after exercising as your body repairs itself from the damage (which is considered good damage) the intervals have done.
Intervals are short and intense bursts of exercise followed by a rest period to recover and then repeated a certain number of times. Anyone of any ability can do intervals. If you haven't done intervals before, start by running/walking at a moderately fast pace for 30 seconds, rest for 60-90 seconds and repeat 5 - 10 times.
As you get fitter, you will want to increase the intensity (speed) of your running, increase the time of the running, reduce the amount of time you are resting or a combination of all three.
Intervals can be done within 20 minutes, which is less that 2% of your day.
You can also do intervals on a bike or rowing machine.
