How Long It Takes To Run A Mile And How It Can Help You Lose Weight?

How does running help to lose weight? (Photo via sporlab/Unsplash)

If you’re running to lose weight, it’s going to work as long as you maintain a calorie deficit diet. However, you should understand that everyone has their own running pace, fitness levels, and stamina. As a result, it’s important to know that not everyone will be burning calories at the same rate.

The amount of time it’ll take you to run a mile depends primarily on your fitness levels. If you’re used to running, it will not take you a lot of time to cover a mile. In fact, you can finish the same in around 10 minutes or even less.

However, if someone with a predominantly sedentary lifestyle is just beginning their fitness journey, it can take them as much as half an hour to finish one mile. Of course, remaining consistent with running will improve speed, and sooner or later, you can finish the mile in a much shorter span of time.

How Does Running Help to Lose Weight?

If your goal is to lose weight, you need to burn calories. When you run, your body dips into the stored calories to generate energy to keep your body moving.

When you’re running, your body will need to constantly provide energy to keep the muscles and joints moving. To do this, it’ll need to burn the stored calories to generate the excess energy needed for the activity. When your body starts burning the stored calories, you start losing weight.

Benefits of Running

Apart from weight loss, there are several other benefits of running that one should be aware of:

Running helps with improving heart health.
It also improves stamina and muscle endurance.
You can keep your mind fresh when you go for runs.
Running enables you to become stronger, and strengthens your lower body.
It also engages and activates your entire body.
You can improve fitness levels and physical performance with running.

What Do You Need to Lose Weight?

Since weight loss is the primary question here, you need to understand that only a calorie deficit can help you lose weight. However, there are other things that you can do for the same.

First, fix a diet that is sustainable and one that you can easily follow. It’s not easy to calculate the macros and calories of everything you eat everyday. Therefore, follow a diet where macros and calories are already calculated. This way, you can remain consistent.

Second, ease yourself into a fitness routine. Whether you want to run a mile every day or just want to focus on weight training or Pilates, that’s up to you. However, you should ease yourself into an exercise routine. Not only will this help with burning excess calories, but it will also make you fitter and stronger in the process.

Third, get plenty of rest. It’s crucial to get plenty of rest when you’re working out. Your body needs time to recover from the workout sessions, and the muscle fibers need to repair themselves as well!

Fourth, don’t just focus on cardio. While cardio is a great form of exercise, it will benefit immensely if you couple it with resistance training. Also, try to do HIIT over LISS whenever possible!

Bottom Line

Running a mile to lose weight is not a bad idea, but with time you’ll have to push the distance. Our bodies have a way of getting accustomed to things after a while, and can get accustomed to running as well. So remember to keep challenging yourself at all times!