Hey! Jogging is easy

Here, in a few snappy sentences, is what dietary guides generally and de-
liberately try to keep secret: weight reduction is virtually impossible without
endurance training. Anyone who tells you that you can take off weight by
going for a walk or lifting weights in a fitness studio is spinning a yarn.
Many things become easier to follow when we take the trouble to think
of the biochemical processes in our body. To put it simply - very simply -
the secret of weight reduction is to eat less, and especially to eat fewer
calories. If you do, the trucks will travel to the power plants half-empty.
If you then take up sports - and running is especially useful - you force
the power plants to work at full steam. But because the trucks are not
bringing enough fuel from the liver to the muscle cells, your body has to
take recourse increasingly in stored sources of energy. The fat deposits
open their floodgates, and potential energy is converted into working
energy. And the more often you keep those power plants working all
out over extended periods, the more energy they will fetch from your
fat cells.

But there's a hitch. Simply put is still a long way from simply done. Not
until your organism has been taught by proper training to tap these in-
exhaustible sources of energy will the bulges slowly - very slowly - begin
to disappear. At the same time, you have to reduce your daily intake of
fresh fats by eating less or turning to low-fat foods. This is because the
power plants always serve themselves first from the free fats circulating
in the bloodstream. So, if you want to lose weight by jogging, keep your
fat cells at starvation point.

Don't misunderstand me. I don't want to spoil your appetite or force a new
and unfamiliar diet on you. If you want to go on banqueting as before and
do a bit of jogging on the side, please go ahead. I just want to point out that
natural dieting can only work slowly - very slowly - and that it is healthy
as well. In case you want to try it out, I've made a calculation for you: one
kilogram of body fat contains about 7,000 calories of energy. If you want
to get rid of that kilogram, there are a couple of ways you can go about it.
Here are two of them.

The first is a hypothetical solution intended merely to illuminate the situation.
You can get rid of that kilogram of fat in a single day by eating nothing at all
and jogging non-stop for eleven to twelve hours. For each hour of jogging
you will consume six-hundred calories from your fat deposits, provided you
run five to six miles per hour on average. The laws of arithmetic inform us
that the kilogram of fat will be gone after you've run sixty miles. Those are
the plain facts.

The second solution, though exhausting enough, is at least feasible. Here the
target is to get rid of that kilogram in a week. Every day you will need an
energy deficit of one-thousand calories. Half of that deficit can be achieved
by sensible nutrition. Instead of consuming a daily average (for men) of
2,500 calories, consume two-thousand. The fat cells will already be feeling
hunger pangs before you even notice the difference. The remaining five-
hundred calories are fetched from the fat deposits by running for forty-five
minutes at a speed of about five miles per hour, i.e. about twelve minutes
to the mile. That's a relatively slow pace. The problem is, therefore, not the
speed, but the fact that you have to do this every day. For the moment, then,
this example too is merely hypothetical. My only point was to show you
that, as far as weight reduction is concerned, you can't expect miracles, even
though jogging and eating less is probably the easiest way to shed pounds.
Of course, you will have to invest sweat, will power, and above all patience.
I hope you're not deadly serious about losing weight. At the beginning of
Hey! Jogging is easy! we agreed that our goal is to run. Well then, off you
go - and enjoy the surprise when you look at yourself in the mirror at the
end of a year of running.

Your target for the next week

Hooray!

Hooray! The first month will be over in just three more runs. By now
your heart has realized that you're taking running seriously - and has
begun to adapt to the new load. The distribution of oxygen is improving,
too, and the first fat cells have already cried "Uncle!", seeing that there's
no way out.

Curious to find out what happens next?
Then read Winni Mühlbauer's book "Hey! Jogging is easy!"

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