How long/often should I jog per day?

Question

I want to lose a bit of fat in my waist area so I have decided to start jogging. I can only last about 10 minutes right now. Is it a bad idea while exercising to take a break for a few minutes then start back up again? I think I could do longer than 10 minutes if I could take a quick break here and there but that seems like it would defeat the purpose of burning fat if I let my heart rate go down??
Would I be better off to just do as much as I can each day, twice a day?

Answer 1

10 minutes of continuous running is not bad at all. You should build up slowly. Running for few minutes and taking breaks in between is quite common and is often used to build up running time, the key is to mix it up. I would not advise running twice a day, At least not everyday! Once in a while is ok because last thing you need is an injury. To be on the safe side the max I run is 3-4 times a week. Allow your body to heal after nice jogs. And if you feel any pain don't run, listen to your body. Let it heal completely before you start running again.

Answer 2

Most certainly yes. Short bursts of physical activity are just as beneficial as say 30/40 minutes. Also by jogging 3 times a day for 10 minutes at a time. You will also start to build your fitness up. If you keep this up, eventually you will be able to jog for 30 minutes or more in one spurt. I know. I also run on a regular basis. I am at the moment training for the London Marathon. I am 47 and did not start running until two years ago. So take it easy to start with, make sure you have the correct footwear, always stretch, warm up and cool down. But most of all ENJOY. Good Luck.

Answer 3

You should actually walk instead of jog. Jogging can take a toll on your joints. The recommended amount of exercise a person should have is 30 minutes per day. Start off with the ten minutes you can do now, and work your way up! Good luck!

Answer 4

Running or jogging for 10 minutes is about a mile. That is going twice as fast as walking. You will be burning 120 calories or a slice of bread or half a dough nut.

When you first start out, take a break when you breathing becomes difficult. Like if you don't think you can carry on a normal conversation. If you can get up to jogging for twenty minutes or about two miles. That is enough exercise. You will be burning 240 calories. It will cause you to lose two pounds per month. Try to run to a certian marker in the distance. Walk until your heart and breathing reduces. Then pick another marker to run to. Keep picking markers further away. You will work up to running two miles.

Slowly work up to running longer times. When you initially start you can run into foot shin and knee problems. If something hurts, take a day or two off. Instead go walk your ten or twenty minutes. You will find yourself running anyway.

If you walk one mile, that is 80 calories. If you cycle one mile, it is 40 calories.

It is easier to loose weight by dieting. Limit the carbohydrates and slightly increase protien. It is helpful to right down your standard meals and see how many calories you are eating. For a woman, the amount of calories need per day is 16 times your weigh in pounds. For a man multiply 18 times your weight in pounds. If you want to loose one pound per week, you need to reduce your calories per day by 500. Do not loose more than two pounds per week. Your body will lower your metabolism by reducing your body temperature.

Answer 5

I had the same problem when I first started. Alternate your ten minutes of jogging and five or ten (whichever you need) minutes of walking. Try to do this for 45 min. to an hour. As you gain endurance, you can shorten the time you walk in between jogging until you're jogging the whole time. Good luck!

Answer 6

Personally i do 10 minute jogging sessions myself training for hockey. However i do other activities such as stretching and lifting in between. I think it may defeat the purpose but too long of a period of time jogging for me just bores me so i have to change it up.

Answer 7

jogging and slow walking can be 45 minutes

Answer 8

Walking helps you shift your attitude toward health, fitness, and weight loss.Take a year to move through the following 3 steps to make gradual but positive lifestyle changes.

Walk : weight loss
1. Just get out there and walk a little. Build a daily habit. Let’s call it being active. Don’t think about changing clothes, going to a gym, jumping around for an hour, or changing clothes.
Just take a short walk to the bus stop, the corner mailbox, or the convenience store for a gallon of milk. Find ways to add an extra 2,000 steps into your daily routine.

Buy and wear a pedometer to measure your steps. A 20-minute walk is about 120 steps per minute, or 2,400 steps. You can break that up into 3 walks of 800 steps each.

How far you walk or how fast you walk aren't important. It’s simply walking in short spurts most days of the week. Be careful. Once you start paying attention to walking, you’ll want to walk farther.

Add a simple 4-minute stretch routine a few days a week after your walk to maintain your natural range of motion. Just stand up, even if you’re at work fully dressed in work clothes. Put one leg back, bend the front knee, and lean forward to stretch the calf muscle. For thighs, grab your ankle from behind, keep your knees close together. Lean forward to stretch your lower back.

Eventually add a simple 2-minute warm-up before you walk: Hold on to a railing for balance and circle your ankle, one leg at a time. Then swing each leg, forward and back. Put your hands on your hips for a circular trunk rotation. This gets the blood flowing and leaves your muscles less prone to injury.

Goal: You’ll realize you don’t have to hurt to feel better. After a walk, you’ll feel invigorated and happy.

2. Walk longer, build strength. Start increasing your walking distance, and you’ll begin to see weight loss. During this second phase, increasing distance means increasing time to 45-60 minutes 2 days a week.
Walking for weight loss

You can cover serious distance in an hour of walking and walk even longer on weekends. Build up to a half-day or day-long hike. This increase in duration increases weight loss, burns more calories, and builds strength as you get off the beaten path and hike up and down hills on a challenging course.

Hike 2 miles somewhere and back at a brisk pace. Ask at any outdoor shop about the best places to hike, such as conservation land, state parks, a waterfront, or rail trail. Go for a full-day trek through a bird sanctuary, take a picnic to a waterfall, or go on an organized hike with a group.

When the weather outside is frightful, many people turn to treadmills. Admittedly, treadmills are boring, but spice up a complete treadmill workout by using elevation to give the sense of a trail. You don’t have to follow the preprogrammed courses. Create your own interval training with hills. Make it a mental game. Life isn’t automated, and your treadmill workout shouldn't be either. Ascend and descend by varying your elevations and speeds.

Pick 5 of your favorite CDs for your portable Walkman – classical, country, rock and roll, even rap. Hit random play, and whatever song comes up, go that tempo. Start and end with an easy one. Put a fan in front of the treadmill to create natural cooling from the wind you’d normally get on a trail.

Keep an activity log. Noting your daily activity is a great motivator, especially when you see those miles start to build up. Tally your daily, weekly, and monthly totals. You’ll hate to write down “0” for any day.

Goal: Walk vigorously for a longer period of time twice a week. If you don't see dramatic weight loss, it may be because you are building muscle.


3. Walk faster and seek variety. In this 16-week segment, you’ll find the athlete within. Speed up your walking and you’ll see total body fitness improvements. A couple days a week, go fast enough to break a sweat and breathe hard.
walk for weight loss
Use the 1-to-10 scale of perceived rate of exertion to measure endurance. Think of 1 as watching TV; 10 is sucking air (you can’t go any farther). Daily walks, for example, are 5 or even 6-6.5 sometimes. Twice a week, crank it up to 7, 8, or 9 on a steep hill for a few minutes. Now you’re burning serious calories and building real aerobic fitness through interval training.

Need variety? Complement your walking with a counterbalancing exercise such as martial arts, yoga, water aerobics, or a court sport like tennis.

Goal: Walk in a 5K or 10K event such as a corporate cup run/walk, a fund-raising race for the cure, or other organized community activity.

How to measure progress: Other than simply feeling great and watching the scale, you can actually measure what fitness walking is doing for your body. Before you begin your activity program, have your doctor check your cholesterol, blood pressure, glucose (high levels can be a sign of early or undiagnosed diabetes), and your body mass index. BMI is a number that reflects your height-to-weight ratio (simply take your weight in pounds, multiply by 703 and divide by your height in inches squared—keep this number under 25 for optimal health).

Measure again at 26 and 52 weeks. You’ll see marked improvements, but not necessarily on the scale. You may be turning fat into muscle, which weighs more than fat. The best measure is how you feel—about yourself.