why can't I lose weight even though I keep doing running exercises?

In recent years, more and more people have fallen in love with running and believe that they can easily lose fat by running alone, without the need to go to a gym to get a card or spend a lot of money on a personal trainer, they can just find a spacious place to run, and are not restricted by time and place. The above may seem economical and convenient, but have you ever paid attention to the long-term results?

Calculate whether you can lose fat by running?

The truth is that you don't burn many calories just by running. For example, if you keep jogging for 40 minutes a day and consume 266 calories, if you accidentally drink a bottle of Coca-Cola after running, you can replenish 258 calories. According to the principle of energy conservation, these 40 minutes are almost equal to running for nothing.

Even if you are a running enthusiast, running 7 days a week, 2 hours and 15 kilometres a day, a day of running consumes about 800 calories, plus the average of the mass static metabolism 1200 calories, a day of consumption of 2000 calories. And the average daily intake diet of a normal person is at least 2000 calories. According to the principle of conservation of energy, you still can't lose the fat on your body.

What exactly does running do?

The truth is that only runners can lose weight by running at high intensity on a daily basis, but ordinary people cannot do it at all. Running only burns energy faster than sitting at home, and its benefits mainly lie in the fact that it improves cardiorespiratory fitness and body functions, but it does not burn many calories and has little effect on fat loss.

You may be surprised to know that after all the effort you put into running, your body gives you so little feedback, apart from feeling tired.

Our ancestors' 'running but not thin' genes

In the Stone Age, our ancestors did not know how to grow crops and their main source of food was hunting. As hunters, humans were unable to match the strength and speed of other predators, but their only advantage was their stamina.

They relied on running to exhaust their prey, sometimes for two or three days, until the prey was exhausted and they could finish the kill. Thus, the endurance of their ancestors enabled them to catch food and survive in a brutal environment.

In times of material scarcity, fat was a scarce resource for the human body, and if ancestors had lost a lot of fat during long runs in pursuit of prey, they would have become very thin and lost serious weight, and these people would not have survived. Therefore, the ancestors who survived were not only enduring and possessed the physique to burn less fat running, the descendants inherited such genes and we are their descendants.

In the 150 years of industrial revolution, technological revolution and information revolution, physical work has gradually been transformed into mental work. Although physical strength has decreased, the physique of 'running but not thin'  is still inherited to this day, so the effect of running to lose fat is still not obvious.

Is it true that running for fat loss can rebound?

Prolonged running-only training causes a reduction in muscle mass in the human upper body. The daily calorie consumption of a person = daily exercise + metabolism. A decrease in muscle mass will lower the metabolism, and a decrease in metabolism will lead to a decrease in daily calorie consumption, and with the same daily dietary intake, the remaining calories will instead increase, so fat loss will not be successful.

So, should you run?

Running is certainly possible, but running alone is not conducive to fat loss,Better with strength training

The more muscle you have, the more your metabolism increases. Even if you are not exercising, people with more muscle burn more calories than the average person.

During exercise, the body burns sugar first and only after a certain point does it burn more fat. Muscle training first burns the body's sugars and then running directly burns fat, so the fat burning effect is more pronounced than running directly. As long as the strength training is continued, it is very unlikely to rebound if the diet remains the same.