Lose a stone in 6 weeks by running?

[BS30]

Hi folks

Just wondered if it's achievable to lose a stone in 6 weeks with a controlled diet and running 4 times per week?

As a bit of background, I was around 14st at the beginning of the year. Lost 2 stone through a combination of strict diet and running but then fell out of running altogether.

Have out about half a stone back on and now have around 1 stone to lose to hit my desired weight.

I'm planning on running 4 times per week, covering around 150miles in those 6 weeks.

My meals are mostly a good mix of carbs/protein/veg with fresh fruit tending to be my main snacks. I'm cutting out all of the usual crisps/chocolate/bread/alcohol (other than half a bottle of wine once per week as a treat/incentive). I drink LOTS of coffee which I just can't cut out but could cut the milk out of it at a push.

Sorry if this is a daft question...I've never really seriously tried to lose weight before, it was just a side effect of the running I did previously as I trained for a half marathon in 6 weeks at the beginning of the year and it fell off! It slowed down massively though towards the end.

[AB]

I lost a stone in 3 weeks recently with a strict diet and lots of running/exercise.

[MrBarry123]

You need a deficit of 3,500 calories to lose 1 pound of fat so you need a deficit of approximately 49,000 calories over 6 weeks to achieve the desired weight loss = 8,166 calories a week = 1,116 calories a day.

I would say that's relatively easy to achieve if the plan is to create the deficit via a combination of exercise and diet.

[R8VXF]

Caffeine is your friend for weight loss. Most people cut out caffeine because their coffee intake usually includes rather a lot of milk (cappuccino, latte etc). A 1000cal a day deficit will see you lose roughly 12 lbs in those 6 weeks. Just don't forget to rebase your bmr each week as you lose weight as this will be affected by your weight loss.

[dai1983]

Maybe try cycling? It's still hard if you have a few hills around but it's easier to cycle for longer than running

[skilly1]

I lost 12 pounds in 3 weeks recently. I found the app My Fitness Pal invaluable. You enter your current weight, your desired weight and number of weeks to get there.

It tells you the number of caleries you can eat per day. You can enter everything you eat (the database is huge) and you then know whether you are on track and how much you can still eat !. If you run and take you iphone with you it will work out caleries burnt and take that in account.

[Hoofy]

Sounds feasible to me.

[blindswelledrat]

dai1983 said:

Maybe try cycling? It's still hard if you have a few hills around but it's easier to cycle for longer than running

Awful idea for weight loss. Cycling burns off less than half the calories/hour than running so you'd have to be cycling for hours per day to get to the OPs target.

OP, I would say relatively easy if you can mind your intake and do that mileage. I would say,however, that if you have stopped running that your target of going from zero to 150 miles in 6 weeks is very ambitious and even if you can physically do it I would be very surprised if you didn't injure yourself.

[BS30]

Thanks folks for the input.

I should clarify that I'm running another half marathon in 6 weeks time and I'm already accustomed to regular running over the last few weeks, I just haven't been at all strict in terms of food and alcohol intake.

I am running 5 miles 3 times per week at present but have been eating and drinking crap on a regular basis which stops today!

I reckon my calories used in exercise will be c. 3500 per week - how do I then work out how many calories I can intake through food to create the required deficit? As I assume any calculation needs to take into account calories used through day to day activity and not just exercise?

[OllyMo]

AB said:

I lost a stone in 3 weeks recently with a strict diet and lots of running/exercise.

Top work

[BS30]

Ok so just loaded my data into my fitness pal and it reckons my net calorie intake per day over the given time period should be 1500 so that's 10,500 per week

My exercise will be c. 3,500 so that's around 14,000 calories per week in food, so 2,000 per day.

Based on the sort of meals I have I reckon I'll actually be in taking around 1500 per day so that sounds promising.

[Vocal Minority]

blindswelledrat said:

Awful idea for weight loss. Cycling burns off less than half the calories/hour than running so you'd have to be cycling for hours per day to get to the OPs target.

.

Depends how hard you work! It works for me...though I do 100 miles a week

[Hackney]

Vocal Minority said:

blindswelledrat said:

Awful idea for weight loss. Cycling burns off less than half the calories/hour than running so you'd have to be cycling for hours per day to get to the OPs target.

.

Depends how hard you work! It works for me...though I do 100 miles a week

Also depends on the condition of your knees. I could never run enough to lose any weight, but cycling.....

[CubanPete]

10 minutes HIIT every morning will kick off the metabalism each day and make a massive difference too.

[MC Bodge]

Vocal Minority said:

blindswelledrat said:

Awful idea for weight loss. Cycling burns off less than half the calories/hour than running so you'd have to be cycling for hours per day to get to the OPs target.

.

Depends how hard you work! It works for me...though I do 100 miles a week

Same here. Cycling does use up calories. Pooling along is probably easier than walking, but working hard is just that -hard!

I run and cycle. If I put the same effort purely into running I would probably be off with injury more than I was running.

There is something to be said for doing Pilates or yoga too, along with more specific strength exercise, if required.

[Hoofy]

Tip: burn more calories by wearing flappy clothing creating greater wind resistance.

[Alex106]

Hoofy said:

Tip: burn more calories by wearing flappy clothing creating greater wind resistance.

You should write a book titled 'This one weird tip for weight loss'

Put one tip on each page of a hundred page book, sell it at £1/tip/page.

Then split the millions with me?!

[Hoofy]

Alex106 said:

You should write a book titled 'This one weird tip for weight loss'

Put one tip on each page of a hundred page book, sell it at £1/tip/page.

Then split the millions with me?!

I think that's my only one. But if you are going to burn calories, then surely lowering the wind resistance to make it easier by wearing lycra means you just have to cycle further/up steeper hills.

[AJB88]

I've gone from 16st13 to 12st10, Started in January.

I've achieved this through a number of ways, mainly looking at what I eat and cutting out all of the rubbish.

I have used MyFitnessPal along with a Fitbit.

I have mainly been doing swimming, gym (light treadmill + weights) and also started Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.

If and when I do go out for a binging session at the pub I make sure I build upto it the day before and after with plenty of exercise.

[DukeDickson]

BS30 said:

I am running 5 miles 3 times per week at present but have been eating and drinking crap on a regular basis which stops today!

This is where it starts and more or less ends (though not being remotely critical as I'm probably at least as bad at the moment ).
Dropping 500 cals a day from the diet (not hard) is a good start & in a way gets you nearly half way there. Then just do the appropriate amount of movement. The running sounds a bit low possibly, depending on how much other movement you do? Walk 5+ miles a day and combined with the diet, it would probably be enough. Running or the bike is just more efficient, time wise.