Running to lose weight - has any tried this?

[LonelyLinda]

And has it worked? I am keen to lose weight and as well as cutting back on alcohol and watching my diet I have decided to start running.

Any success stories would help to encourage me!

I lost 4 stone and that involved running! Learned to love it eventually!

Good luck

Not sure why everything needed exclamation marks there.....

I didn't lose any by running 3 x per week. Using My Fitness Pal to calorie count for six weeks, I lost loads and have kept it off.

Wow 4 stone is amazing! How often do you run now?

I'm not very good at calorie counting, all the thinking about food makes me eat more.

I'm going to reduce bread and pasta and alcohol and run and run and run!

Yes and it keeps the weight off too. Have been running for 20 years on and off but recently got back into it and lost half a stone with minimal dieting. Best friend just lost 2 stone in 4 months, no dieting at all, just running. But you do have to do quite a bit. I do 4 short runs and 1 long run per week. But you can literally start from nothing and soon build up- the trick is to do it regularly and often rather than try and run a 10k in your first week.

I'm going to try to run five times a week for 5k but will have to build it up first by walk/run

Judy - Linda has said she will be watching her diet/alcohol too so it should have an effect.

I lost it over a year using FoodFocus (preceded MFP) so was on about 1200 cals a day (more if exercising) and lost up to 2lb a week. I was at the gym or running 3-4 times a week (30 mins-1hr)

On a good week I run once or twice, do circuits once and pilates once. On a bad week, nowt

Do you run already? 5k five times a week is a lot if you don't. I started getting back into my running by doing a 15 min run 4 times a week and then however long I could manage once a week. I've now built it up and am running up to 10k but it was important to me that I just got out and did it to begin with, got into the routine and built my fitness up. Once done, then I focused on my actual distance. It's only my opinion and you may be fit already, but setting high distance targets - 25k per week is very high - could end up being a bit soul destroying

Running alone - didn't lose any weight. Combined with Foodfocus as another poster mentioned above, made me realise quite how much I was eating. Watching the sugary crap made me lose weight, but frankly, the 2:5 diet was the best of all for me.
Good luck though, I really enjoyed running!

I have been running 3 times a week (15 miles) for the past three years but have managed to put on weight as it increases my appetite! Have decided to reduce carbs (I love bread and pasta!) and go to Metafit. If that doesn't work it will have to be the 5:2 diet

I went from doing NO exercise to c25K to running a half marathon over 18 months and combined with watching what I ate I lost 4 1/2 stone.
Sadly I then stopped running and ate crap again and put 4 stone back on. But have now re-started running and will be eating better once holiday food all gone and hope to lose it all again LOL!
Do be careful not to do too much to start with though as it will make you more liable to injury and then you will be out of action and that will be a set back.

Running helped me put on weight and never helped, save when I did a 10 min run round the block (about 1km) before breakfast, three times a week, just keeping gym kit under bed and putting it on first thing if not too knackered. Gets the metabolism up but anything more strenuous tends to lead to more appetite imo. Oh, interval training helps, that's when you do 15 mins on running machine, but one minute is jogging (8.5km per hour for me) and one minute running (12.5km per hour speed) by pressing the button marked 'Interval Training', this is not too knackering.