If you’ve watched or participated in a recreational triathlon or running race, you’ve probably observed that not all the athletes out there are rocking a particularly athletic body.
If you were a participant, you may well have noticed that many of those ‘non-athletic’ body shapes finished way, way ahead of you.
While the athletes at the front of the pack may look like lean, mean athletic machines, most participants are just average adults trying to cram some version of a training schedule into everyday life.
If you are currently carrying extra weight, running may feel like a pipe dream, but the reality is that running is not only a great way for overweight people to engage in a healthier lifestyle – it’s also an attainable way to achieve your sporting goals.
Is Running Good for Overweight People?
Yes, running is healthy for overweight people. It drives improvements in fitness, body composition, mental health, and even self-confidence.
While not specific to running, physical activity has been consistently linked not only to weight loss but to the likelihood of the weight staying off over a long period.
Physical health isn’t the only positive outcome of running regularly – studies show that regular exercise helps to improve aspects of mental health, elevating your mood and improving your memory.
The most important consideration is that all the benefits you enjoy from running will take time to manifest – both the fitness increase and the weight loss.
Patience and consistency are critical.
Before You Start Running
None of us are as young as we used to be, and so it’s seldom smart to simply get off the couch and start running no matter where you assume your physical fitness currently is. The same holds if you’re overweight.
Before starting on a training plan, be sure to see your primary physician for a once-over and share as much detail as possible on why you’re there and what you plan to accomplish with your new running routine.
Your doctor knows what they are doing, but in this context should at a minimum consider:
- your current health, including weight, blood pressure, cholesterol levels, and blood sugar levels
- your medical history, including any pre-existing conditions, injuries, surgeries, or chronic diseases
- your current fitness level
- your goals, and the timeframe in which you plan to achieve them.
How To Run – Beginners Tips To Get You Started
We go deep on how to start running here, and the same principles apply to running when overweight.
One golden rule applies to everyone including overweight runners – start slow, and gradually increase training volume and intensity over time.
The first few weeks of any workout schedule are not where huge gains are made. The start of your fitness journey may well feel like you’re achieving nothing at all, but the benefits compound as you settle into a weekly routine.
One area to emphasize as you start running when overweight is training using heart rate.
This is because your heart rate determines which energy source you are primarily consuming, between stored body fat and stored glycogen (derived from carbohydrates).
How to measure heart rate without a heart-rate monitor
If you don’t have a heart rate monitor, don’t stress – simply press the tips of your first two fingers lightly over your carotid artery as shown. Count for 6 seconds and multiply by 10 to get to beats per minute.
Stop and do this every 5-10 minutes to get a sense of where you’re at.
Runners and triathletes of all levels, including elite level, follow this approach as they focus a huge proportion of their training schedule on low-heart rate running, for their bodies to become accustomed to burning fat for fuel.
So please don’t assume this is a watered-down version of a running plan telling heavier runners to stick to a safe slow pace all the time – exercising at the right heart rate zone for you will help you build endurance, develop increased lean muscle mass, and improve relative performance.
The American Heart Association has an easy guide to finding your target heart-rate zone for moderate-intensity exercise, and we recommend staying at the minimum end of the range as you start running and for the first several weeks of your running journey.
How to Build Up to Running
You may see other athletes running intervals on the track and think to yourself, ‘I should do that’.
Don’t.
The walk-run strategy is the recommended method to use as you start running when overweight, as it allows athletes to gradually increase time spent training without putting excessive stress on the body and driving up the risk of injury.
Your focus is on heart rate and not pace or speed, so your focus will be on combining brisk walking with light jogging, looking to extend the time for which you can run continuously within your target heart rate range.
We go into more detail on consistent progression and sustained buildup in your training volume here.
Tips to get started
- Consistency is key, so plan out your training week ahead of time, starting with at least three workouts of 30 minutes each
- Include time for warm up and cool down
- Plot out routes that are relatively flat
- Implement a running plan for each run, where you list your outcomes for each workout
For example, plan to walk for two minutes and run for 30 seconds for the duration of the workout. Track your heart rate throughout the run, and adjust the plan if needed. But be sure to document how it went, to inform your future running plan, and to track all the progress you’re making.
- Include at least one session per week of strength training and core exercises
- Expect it to be difficult in the beginning
Tired muscles are good! Trouble breathing, less so. Try to find the sweet spot where you’re pushing into mild discomfort with each session, to ensure you’re working hard enough to start dropping some of that extra weight.
- Consider working with an experienced triathlon or running coach to take the guesswork out and get a personalized program
Injury Prevention for Overweight Runners
Running is a high-impact sport, with each step placing strain on your ankles, knees, and hips.
There are several interrelated factors to consider to ensure you reduce your risk of common issues such as knee pain and shin splints.
Practice proper form
Our full overview on how to practice good running form for beginners is here, and very similar principles apply to how overweight runners should approach running technique.
The human body is built for running, but we all need a bit of reminding of how to do so efficiently given our modern affinity for sitting rather than running.
Overweight runners need to focus on impact reduction in their running form, and there are two areas to focus on as you get started to achieve this.
The first is your foot strike – many beginners have a heel strike, meaning that with each stride, they move their foot too far forward and land squarely on their heel.
The result is a jarring force running up through your leg, as your foot absorbs all your forward momentum.
Beginners should focus on landing directly under their bodies with each stride as if your legs are following your upper body, pushing out behind you rather than extending your legs out in front.
The second key focus area is cadence or the number of steps you take each minute.
For pretty much all of us (assuming we aren’t elite runners), we should aim for a higher cadence. Getting your stride rate up decreases the impact of each step, helps you keep momentum, and generally allows you to run faster without expending any additional energy.
More details on both these topics can be found here.
Choose the Right Running Shoes
Choosing the proper running shoes for your body and running style is critical for all runners, and particularly important for runners carrying a little excess weight.
Proper footwear goes hand in hand with an improved running form to bring down the risk of injury from the impact of each stride, particularly for impact injuries such as shin splints.
The good news is that there are far more options for overweight runners to find the right shoes these days than there were a few years ago when minimalist shoes were all the rage.
Shoes with a high degree of cushioning are the fashion right now, which is exactly what we are looking for in this context.
Brands such as Hoka and Altra have come to the forefront with racing shoes that are both cushioned and fast.
The team at Runners’ Lab conducted a detailed assessment of running shoes for heavy runners, which should help you make an informed decision on what’s best for you.
Not on the list, but a personal favorite of the team at swimbike.run is the Hoka Clifton 9, which we started training in after an increase in overall mileage led to tired and sore feet. From a cushioning and comfort perspective, they’re at the top of our list.
If you’re looking for a carbon racing shoe with a good degree of cushioning, we can also recommend the Saucony Endorphin Pro 3. We trained and raced in the Pro 2 model, which comes with slightly less cushioning than the Pro 3.
The good news is that Pro 2’s are on sale all over the web now that the Pro 3 is out, should you be looking to save a few dollars.
Spend more time on a treadmill
Running on a high-quality treadmill brings less impact on your joints than running on harder surfaces such as concrete or asphalt.
The quality of your workout isn’t compromised by treadmill running either. Read more on the pros and cons of treadmill running here.
Get the Right Gear for Running
We’re always looking to get into training and racing with as little gear as possible here at swimbike.run and that holds here, but it is possible to wear gear designed to support your specific running requirements without looking like you’re sponsored head-to-toe by Nike.
One of the most important pieces of gear for women is a sports bra that works for your body and your running, and so this piece of kit is a good candidate for investment, relative to say the t-shirt you plan to wear over the sports bra.
Lululemon has some of the highest-rated sports bras for runners at the moment, so it’s worth considering their All Powered Up and Energy Bra ranges to avoid raw skin in sensitive places.
Achieving Your Weight Loss Goals
Running is a great option to help athletes lose weight as part of their broader race and lifestyle goals.
With regular running, the challenge is to balance a restricted calorie intake to aid weight loss, with the extra physical activity you’re undertaking every week, which in theory requires more calories to be performed effectively.
There are thousands of resources online supporting a healthy diet, but for simplicity, we like to focus on the concept of Athlete’s Plates, endorsed by USA Triathlon and covered in more detail here.
The principles of healthy eating (avoiding processed foods, eating lean protein, and consuming carbs from whole grains) are well understood. A common misconception, however, is just how many calories are required to fuel your workouts.
This means that many people who start running when overweight overestimate how many calories they burn with each workout, and then eat more than they should to compensate for the extra physical activity.
Most of us have trouble avoiding mindless eating at the best of times, but those little extra snacks or helpings become much easier to justify if you’ve just gotten back from a hard workout.
The effects of lean muscle development on weight loss
We don’t support looking only at body weight to gauge the effects of running on overall fat reduction, for the simple reason that you will start to build muscle as you start running regularly – even if you don’t include weight training with heavy resistance into your program.
Muscle weighs more than fat by volume, but this is good weight; apart from all the benefits stronger muscles bring to our running, they also burn calories just by existing.
So all your new muscle is busy burning fat while you’re sitting on the couch watching The Bold and the Beautiful reruns.
Your weight may not drop very quickly in the beginning, and you may even experience slight weight gain, which can be disheartening, to say the least.
An alternative to weighing in is to use measurements to gauge your progress. Every other week, taking one or two key measurements will be a far better guide for how your fat loss is progressing than the bathroom scale is.
Starting on your Own Journey
The key takeaway from this article is that overweight runners don’t need to train and race at a marathon-winning pace to experience all the health and fitness gains a regular running schedule can deliver.
If you have the patience to build up slowly, there is very little stopping you from improving consistently year over year into the future.