If you are determined to lose weight, running on a treadmill can help you the most in this journey. But what you need to do is follow a sustainable running plan which you can follow for a period of time. And the running plans need to be changed after several weeks so your body doesn’t get too comfortable.
In order to lose weight by running on the treadmill, you should be running at about 8 to 10 km/h speed till you get into your fat-burning heart rate zone. Once you reach that heart rate, you will need to run for about 15 to 25 minutes to lose weight.
But knowing how long you should run on the treadmill to lose weight is a vague idea as long as you don’t know what your end goals are. Depending on what you wanna achieve, your hours of running on a treadmill varies. Stay tuned to find out more.
Determining how long should you run on the treadmill
It’s understandable that your main goal is to drop weight. But you need to have a more specific goal in order to understand how much time you need to spend on the treadmill.
For example, you are a relatively fit guy, who just wants to be in better shape. Now, the amount of time you need to spend on the treadmill won’t be similar to someone who is obese. Even though the target is to lose weight using a treadmill, but you are focusing on getting in a better shape more than losing weight while the obese person’s concern is all about weight.
I have put together a few types of running goals for you, see in which category you fall and then we will see how much time you need to spend on the treadmill in order to achieve your goal.
- Simply losing fat and weight
Usually, most people buy and run on a treadmill to lose fat and weight. And people with this goal need to give the most amount of time and effort on the treadmill in order to achieve their goal.
So be prepared for some long sessions of intense running and don’t be impatient with your goal.
- Getting in shape
Given that you are relatively fit, your goal should be to be in better shape. And achieving this is comparatively easy since you are not overweight or obese.
A little bit of running every day will keep you in shape, you won’t have to use the treadmill for hours.
- Toning muscles
Since treadmill running falls under the aerobic exercise category, you already know doing this exercise your muscle won’t grow. But if you already have muscles that are not properly visible due to excess fat that you have put on recently.
With a goal to get rid of that fat and tone your muscles, you can use a treadmill as well. The overall definition of your muscles will be better with a bit of running every day on the treadmill.
- Building strength, stamina, and endurance
Many people want to use the treadmill in order to prepare for a long race like a marathon. Building strength and boosting stamina and endurance is much needed if you want to run a marathon.
If your goal is to lose weight and prepare for such an event as well, you need to do a lot of intense long-running on the treadmill. And this type of training is often very hard.
Also Read – BEST TREADMILL FOR MARATHON TRAINING IN 2021
Amount of time you need to spend on the treadmill
There are many treadmill workouts out there that can be beneficial for your weight loss journey. Some exercises are intense and short while others are easy but a bit time-consuming.
Depending on what kind of running plan you are following and your goal, the time duration varies. If you do high-intensity running, you will need to run less time compared to a slow-paced jog. That’s why I have listed a complete running plan which you can perform on the treadmill. It also includes how much time you will have to spend on these exercises.
- Time needed to lose fat and weight using a treadmill
First thing first, start maintaining a clean diet with healthy nutritious foods. Having done that, let’s start running.
If you are a beginner, try to run for around 20 minutes in the beginning. Repeat it 3 times every week until running becomes a bit easy for you. If you can’t keep up running for 20 minutes or so, you can do slow walks as well and gradually speed up.
And if you are someone, who can run but not for long. You can rotate between running and walking and complete the 20 minutes. You should keep up the practice, speed, and time until you can run effortlessly for about half an hour. And you should be able to repeat that for 4 to 5 days a week.
Given that you have got the hang of running on a treadmill, now it’s time to introduce HIIT on the treadmill. It is the best form of exercise to perform on a treadmill in order to burn fat and lose weight rapidly.
HIIT on a treadmill is basically running very intensely for a time period, then slowly walking for another. By repeating this process several times, you will complete the workout. High-Intensity Interval Training takes your heart beating to the fat-burning zone very fast and hence you burn more calories in less amount of time.
If you have just started running on the treadmill, I have a HIIT routine sample for you to perform on the treadmill. Follow the instructions mentioned below.
- First of all, warm up at a moderate speed keeping the treadmill at a flat position.
- Set the speed at 6.5 mph and incline at 2% and run for a minute and a half.
- Repeat the whole process for 5 rounds.
- End the exercise by slowly walking or jogging for five minutes at a slow pace so your body cools down.
If this exercise seems very easy to you, maybe you have been running for a while now and need an advanced running plan. Well, lucky for you, I have a demo HIIT plan for you as well.
- Like always, warm up at a steady and comfortable speed while keeping the treadmill flat.
- Set the speed to 12 mph and the incline to 5 percent and run for half a minute.
- Then walk at 3 or 4 mph speed for about 45 seconds.
- Repeat both of these continuously for seven rounds.
- Cooldown by a slow walk for five minutes and finish off the exercise.
This exercise might seem a bit hard, but don’t give up, keep on pushing yourself and you will see your fat and extra weight gone in no time. You can also add more time to the running period to make the exercise more intense. However, if you find it difficult to use your treadmill properly during exercise, check how to use treadmill control panel.
- Time needed in order to get in shape using a treadmill
If you want to lose weight to get in better shape, the whole approach would be different for you. Your main goal has to be running intensely, not the amount of time you have spent on the treadmill.
20 minutes of intense running every day is good enough to get you in shape. If you are struggling at first and can’t run that intensely, you can slowly increase the intensity level gradually. I have an intense running plan for you that you can follow to get in shape within a very short period of time. The whole exercise is a combination of four phases. Let’s start.
- Slow walk and warm-up
Like any exercise, you need to warm up your body in order to avoid any fatal injury. Especially given that you are about to run intensely, you should make sure the warm-up is done right by slowly walking or jogging for five minutes or so.
If you have been running for a while, you can skip the slow walk and rather jog at a moderate speed to get started.
- Intense running begins
Having completed the warm-up now is the time for you to speed up gradually to your limit. Depending on your condition, the speed may vary, what you need to do is run as fast as you can.
Try to keep on altering between slow and fast speed for as long as you can without taking any break. If you run at sprint speed for 2 minutes, run at slow speed for one minute. This is how you should keep on altering until you have spent at least 20 minutes on the treadmill.
- Adding incline
Set the incline of the machine to the percentage which makes it a tough climb for you. Then continue walking on the inclined treadmill. If you run 1 minute at an inclined, run 1 minute at a flat position.
This is how you need to keep altering until you have completed at least fifteen minutes or so on the treadmill. The speed should be fast enough so the climb is not easy for you.
- Recovery
After the intense training, your body deserves some recovery time for sure. And you need to provide your body so you can keep up your work on a better level the next day.
By doing yoga, massaging, stretching, rolling on foam, etc. you can give your body a chance to recover from the intense workout.
- Time needed for toning muscles using a treadmill
If by using a treadmill you want to lose weight so your muscles look more toned and defined, well you surely can do that. And I have all the tips and tricks to make the whole process easier for you.
First thing first, just a treadmill is not enough in order to achieve your goal. You need a few other exercise equipment as well. A pair of dumbbells of moderate weight, resistance band, and a foal roller will be sufficient enough along with the treadmill.
What you are going to do is set the incline to 3 or 4 percent incline first and do sprints for 30 seconds. After completing the 30 seconds sprint, you can do any exercises with the dumbbells or resistance band. This is how you have to keep going for at least 20 minutes or more. The combination of both running and weight exercise will help you with losing weight and making muscles more visible.
- Time needed to build strength, stamina, and endurance using a treadmill
Some people want to prepare for running a marathon by running on a treadmill to lose weight. They don’t limit their goal to just dropping weight, rather they want to gain strength, stamina, and endurance good enough to run a marathon.
If you are one of those, you need to put in a lot of time on the treadmill as you already can guess. Running for 40 to 60 minutes a day is necessary in order to fulfill your aim. Here’s a workout plan I have put together for you keeping in mind you want to uplift your stamina and endurance.
First of all, warm up properly and get ready for the long-running season. Run 30 seconds at the speed you will be running at a marathon and then run for 30 seconds slowly to catch your breath. Repeat this cycle ten times and then keep jogging at a slow speed for 3 minutes. Then repeat the whole process as many times as you can.
Check – HOW MUCH SHOULD I RUN A DAY TO LOSE WEIGHT?
Conclusion
After reading this article, I’m confident you won’t ask yourself questions like “how long should I run on treadmill to lose weight?”- not anymore. Now all you need to do is figure out your specific goal and start running accordingly.
If you give adequate time on the treadmill according to your goal, you will surely see results.
