The Simple Plan

Run Smart, and Slim Down

Eat Right,

The Simple Plan

From the editors of r
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The Simple Plan

Your Personal Calorie number
Before you start figuring how you’re going to create a calorie deficit, you need to know how many calories your body requires to maintain the weight you are now. That calorie number is unique to you. It depends on many things—your size, your gender, your age, and how active you are. Roughly speaking, the more active you are and the younger you are, the more calories it takes to maintain your current weight. Bigger folks need more calories to fuel them; as they start to lose pounds, they’ll require fewer. Just go to www.runnersworld.com/ rybo and go to the basal metabolic rate (BMR) calculator, where you can enter your numbers. This tool measures how many calories you need each day to maintain your current weight if you’re sitting around doing absolutely nothing—and how many you need if you’re more active. Once you know how many calories you need to maintain your weight, you can make some well-informed decisions about the food you’re consuming and your exercise. You can eat less or move more to get the scale to move, too. n

Calorie Math: A Quick Review
Let’s strip this idea down to the simplest possible terms. Your body burns calories every day. If you eat more calories than your body burns, those calories are stored on the body as fat. If you eat fewer calories than your body burns, you lose fat. In other words, a calorie deficit is what leads to weight loss.

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ow much of a deficit do you need to create? Well, a pound is 3,500 calories. So if you want to lose a pound in a week, you need to have a deficit of 500 calories per day. There are three different ways you can go about this: You can keep your diet the same but do more activity. If you run five miles, for instance, you might burn about 500 calories. Or you can slash 500 calories from your daily calorie intake. If you’re eating 1,800 calories per day, you’d whack 500 off that total for 1,300, and in a week, you’d be one pound lighter. But chances are, you’ll feel pretty hungry if you slash your calories by that much each day.

There’s a third way to create a calorie deficit: You can move more and eat less. Say you run about two and half miles, burning about 250 calories. Then you trim 250 calories from your food intake, which you might not notice so much. You’ve now cut 500 calories out of your day. It’s this third way to create a calorie deficit that is the strategy behind Run Your Butt Off! Move a little more, eat a little less. Run Your Butt Off! aims to teach folks how to build up to running 30 minutes at a time, how to eat healthier foods— and shed the unhealthy eating habits that have been sabotaging your efforts to shed pounds. Read on for suggestions on how to burn more calories and eat smarter. n

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Experienced Runners:

Take a Gut Check!

Runners are pretty good with numbers. We know the pace we’re running to the second and the miles we logged last week to the tenth. We plot meticulous training plans 16 weeks in advance.

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ut there’s one area of calculating where we’re woefully ignorant: calorie counting. Runners are fuzzy with those figures, clinging to the quaint notion that running exempts us from worrying about how much we eat. Really, the thinking goes, I ran today, so what’s one slice of cake? Can this Girl Scout cookie really be that big a deal compared to the sweat pooling on the treadmill belt? Fact is, we can’t sweep calorie math under the treadmill, as much as we’d like to. Running three and four miles at a time, a few times a week, is great for both physical and mental health. But no one can use 12 miles per week to justify visits to the all-you-can-eat buffet. Runners who want to lose weight have to honestly reckon with the calories they’re taking in and the calories their running burns. Commit this calculation to memory: For each mile you run, the calories you burn equals your body weight multiplied by .75. So a 150-pound person who runs three miles would burn about 338 calories (150 x .75 x 3). A good start, yes, but hardly carte blanche in the eating department. n

Boost the Burn

 Banish your garagedoor opener and walk around the house three times before going in. Attack the stairs. Swear off escalators or elevators. Live in a high-rise? Get off three flights before your destination. Break up a long workday with a walk around the parking lot, a few flights of stairs, or a power walk through cubicle village. For one week, park your car in the first 3

space you come to, at work, at the mall, and at the store.

Do crunches, planks, or dynamic stretching while watching TV at night.

Buy a pedometer and try to walk more each successive day for seven days. Pace the sidelines at your child’s soccer or softball game. Leave the foldout chair at home. n

Anytime you’re in motion during the day, you’re burning more calories than you are if you’re just sitting. Even if you run three miles most mornings, you still don’t have permission to sit on your duff the other 23 hours of the day. Try to integrate more movement into your day with these 10 simple changes to your routine.

Record an exercise show and follow along in your living room for 15 minutes in the evening. Assemble your staff for a walking meeting. Meet a friend for a walk at the park instead of at a coffee shop or for a movie.

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Calorie-Slashing Workouts
Once you’ve got the basics of running down and can comfortably run 30 minutes at a time, you can vary your workouts. Changing it up will keep you from getting bored with your routine and jack up the calories you torch with each workout. Runner’s World coach and Run Your Butt Off! author Budd Coates explains:

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o Long: If you’re not currently

in the habit of doing a long run, add one to your routine every other week. Let’s say your typical run is 30 minutes. Try adding five minutes to

your run every other week. So on Week 1 you run 35 minutes. Week 2 you stay at 30 minutes. Week 3 is 40 minutes. Week 4, you’re back to 30 minutes. Week 5 you’re at 45 minutes. Continue this until

you build up to an hour of continuous running. AdvAnced version  If you’ve already been running for six months or more, you can build up a little faster. Add one mile to one of your runs every week, until your long run is 50 percent longer than your daily run. For instance, if you run six miles each day, put in an extra mile once each week until you’re up to nine miles. Then, every other week, continue to add one mile, until your long runs are double your current weekly run. For instance, build up so you’re running 10 miles, then nine, 11, then nine, and finally 12 miles, then nine. go Faster: Speedwork burns more calories because the faster you run, the

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more distance you cover in the same period of time. If you’ve never done speedwork, here’s how to start: Run for 10 minutes at a slow and comfortable pace. Then pick up the pace so you’re running a little faster. Hold this pace for one minute, then return to your easy pace for one minute. Alternate the fast and easy segments for 10 minutes (so you’ll run five at the harder pace). Make sure there’s a noticeable difference in the fast and easy paces. Finish with 10 minutes of easy running. As you get used to that workout, you can add more hard minutes, or increase the hard running time to two minutes with one-minute jogs in between. AdvAnced version You can endlessly vary your intervals, depending on your race goals. Half-mile repeats are a popular choice, especially if you’re new to speedwork. Start with four 800s, at about 70 to 75 percent of your maximum speed, and give yourself 400 meters to jog slowly in between. Build up to six. Make sure you can run the last 800 at the same speed as or faster than you do your first. go Up: You can boost your calorie

burn by increasing the effort of the run, and hills are a natural way to do that. Scope out running loops that take you up three or four noticeable hills. Don’t worry about how long or steep the hills

are. Just try to get a variety of inclines. AdvAnced version Try hills on the treadmill, where you can control the incline and the duration, and you don’t have to run downhill. For every five minutes of flat running, do a twominute hill at 3 percent incline. As you get better at hills, you can increase the incline or the duration of the hill. Unless you’re specifically training for a mountain event, you don’t need to raise the incline beyond 4 percent. go DoUbLe: Start the second part of your routine, such as your core exercises or strength training, immediately after you’re done running. By doubling up, “you’re extending the period of time that you’re highly active,” Coates says. And the calories tick off faster. AdvAnced version Circuit training is a killer calorie-burner. Break up your run in a park or around a track with sets of crunches, push-ups, lunges, and squats. Running with fatigued muscles will keep your body from adapting to running at the same pace and send your heart rate sky-high. n

Your noexCuses GYm baG
Your 4:30 meeting was canceled? the store you were headed to is closed? every once in a while, the gods of time smile upon you, and you’re handed an unexpected 30 minutes. so

why not work out? stow items in your gym bag so you can run anytime, anywhere:

gym bag or car on a Sunday night.

Water bottLe: In the summer months, freeze a water bottle and leave it in your car. It will melt in time for you to enjoy after your workout.

take your first steps or after you’re done.

reentrY gear: In case you need to look presentable when your workout is over, pack a dry towel and some baby wipes to conceal the evidence that you’ve been exercising. Deodorant, clean underwear, and a small desk fan might also help. n

rUnning shoes: If you’re serious, invest in a second pair and keep one in the car and one at home. Rotate them to wear them evenly.

CLothing: Shorts or tights, T-shirts of various length and warmth, bras, and socks. Stock your

snaCks: Stow an energy bar, raisins, nuts, or any other easily digestible, nonperishable food that can take the edge off your hunger before you

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The Simple Plan

Tools for Healthy Eating Every Runner Needs
If you’re running for weight loss, you need more than just running shoes and comfortable shorts. Keep these items handy when you’re cooking and eating, and you’ll have a much more accurate idea of how many calories you’re taking in.

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The

you need to know how many servings you’re having. Commit to educating yourself about serving sizes.

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Leave them out on the counter for a week, and measure those hard-toeyeball items, like cereal, juice, pasta, rice, salad dressing, and ice cream. No foods are ever strictly forbidden. But you have to get an accurate sense of the calories in every food, and to do that, first

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measUring CUps anD spoons.

a CLoCk. Timing is important. Try to slow down as you eat. It takes about 20 minutes for the nerve endings in the gut to signal to the brain, “Hey, food is incoming!” If you rush through your meals, you risk overeating. Watch the clock after you’ve eaten, too. Try to give yourself at least three hours off before eating again. People who snack constantly throughout the day often end up consuming more calories than those who eat meals and snacks at regular intervals with hours of no eating in between. penCiL anD paper. Food logging

everything you eat and drink for at least three days, preferably for a week. Note not just what you’re eating, but when, where, how much, and whether you were hungry or not hungry. Keeping a food log will help you see, in black and white, exactly what your problem times are. When are you consuming extra calories that you don’t need? You’ll see it if you log.

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aCCess to CaLorie inFormation.

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may seem like a drag—but it works for weight loss. Write down

Sites such as calorieking.com and WebMD have online calorie calculators that provide easy ways to look up calories in different brands and sizes of food. Find a calorie database you like, and use it to count your calories for a few days. Once you add up how many calories are in that turkey sandwich on rye with a slice of cheese and a pickle, you’ll know. And you won’t have to look every time. n

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Never Run Hungry
Trying to work up the motivation to run on an empty stomach is nearly impossible. So have a small snack about an hour before your run. Here, dietitian Leslie Bonci, MPH, R.D., and coauthor of Run Your Butt Off!, offers some suggestions. You’ll have to experiment to find the foods that keep you satiated but don’t upset your stomach while you’re running.

 A 1-cup mixture of sugar-free orange Jell-O with canned mandarin oranges.  1 ounce of Cheerios or Chex cereal (about ¾ cup) with 4 ounces of skim milk.  A sandwich made from 100-calorie sandwich thins and 2 teaspoons of peanut butter or 1 slice of whole-grain toast with 1 slice of melted cheese on top.

 A 100- to 150-calorie bar, like Kashi or Special K, or ½ of a Power Bar. (Be sure to read the label.)
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meet for workouts, share victories with, and comfort through setbacks and bad races. A like-minded peer group is a powerful motivating force. Get your spouse, your children, and your friends on board with your running and weight-loss efforts. They’ll give you kudos for your efforts, and they’ll be less likely to sabotage your healthy eating efforts. Surround yourself with people pursuing similar goals. If possible, recruit a training partner. You’ll never skip a workout if you know you’re leaving a friend waiting for you at the park.

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Create a sUpport netWork. Make friends to

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set goaLs. Get specific about

your goals—the races you want to run, the times you want to hit, the miles you want to cover by the end of the year. Set goals that are measurable and establish a time frame for accomplishing them. For instance, set a goal to lose eight pounds in three months, or to finish your first 5-K in October.

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Seven Habits of Highly Effective Runners and Eaters
People who take up running (and stick to it) and people who lose pounds (and keep them off) have habits in common. Here they are:
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keep traCk. Keep detailed logs of what you eat and what you run. Run Your Butt Off! provides detailed food and exercise logs that are easy to use, but any system you’re comfortable with—on a computer, smartphone, or in a notebook—will do. Record all your purposeful activity, not just running. (After a while, the empty spaces that denote sedentary days will drive you nuts—and motivate you to keep moving.) With food logging, you don’t have to do it for your whole life. But doing it for a week at a time at different times during the year can help keep you committed to healthy eating.

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workout times. Also, make meal plans for lunch and dinner, write a shopping list, buy the ingredients, and set aside time for cooking.

runners know that not every workout is going to be an A+. There will be some weeks when you get sick, get stuck at work late, or simply don’t feel like running. During those times, do whatever running you have time to squeeze in (or find another activity that appeals to you that week). So you set out to run four days this week and only got to it twice? Fine. Resolve to try harder the following week, but don’t give up entirely. Same thing with eating. If you eat a food that was more caloric than you wanted, it doesn’t mean you should fall off the wagon completely. Just try to control your intake the rest of the day and do better tomorrow.

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have reasonabLe expeCtations. Experienced

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staY Consistent. To improve at running, you’ve got to put the miles in, week in and week out. Going through periods of high intensity, followed by periods of injury and time off, won’t make you fitter or faster. Come up with a training and eating plan that you can stick to. Radical exercise plans and restrictive diets won’t last. Look for small changes you can make that will be sustainable for the long haul. see the vaLUe. Running

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your runs as unmovable appointments. Plan your meals well ahead of time, because if you’re left

wondering at the last minute what’s for dinner, you can end up eating fatty, high-calorie takeout. Pull out your calendar once a week and write in your
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regularly and eating right shouldn’t feel like suffering and deprivation; they’re about taking good care of you. You deserve the time to exercise and eat well. Make taking care of you, by allowing yourself time for running and eating right, a priority. n

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Keep Y our Teeth Busy hen you have to chew foods carefully, it prolongs the time you take to consume a meal. Lengthen your lunch or snack with these foods that are long on chew time and short on calories.
2 cups air-popped popcorn (62 calories, 2.5 grams fiber) Sprinkle with cinnamon or chili powder for a kick ½ cup edamame (125 calories, 4 grams fiber), sprinkled with sea salt

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Curb Your CravinGs
You can satisfy your sweet tooth or your yen to crunch without breaking the calorie bank. Often it’s a matter of controlling the portion size or finding a sneaky substitute to do the trick. Here’s how to indulge without going hog wild. You crAve Cold stone Creamery vanilla (330 calories in 5 ounces) TrY THis insTeAd a skinny Cow French vanilla truffle bar (100 calories, 3 grams fiber) You crAve hershey’s milk Chocolate bar (210 calories, 13 grams of fat) TrY THis insTeAd Jell-o chocolate pudding snack cup (140 calories, 4 grams fat) You crAve Lay’s potato chips (160 calories, 10 grams fat) TrY THis insTeAd popchips (120 calories, 4.5 grams fat) You crAve a new York-style bagel with a shmear of cream cheese (4 50 calories, 21 grams fat) TrY THis insTeAd ½ bagel with one piece of Laughing Cow light original cheese (230 calories, 4 grams fat) n

1 ounce Just veggies dried vegetables (100 calories, 2 grams fiber) 4 dried figs (120 calories, 5 grams fiber) 10 baby carrots (40 calories, 2 grams fiber) 2 celery stalks (12 calories, 1.2 grams fiber) 1 large dill pickle (24 calories, 1.6 grams fiber)

Power in a Pill e ven the most disciplined eaters have bad days, when they struggle to consume a well-balanced diet. A multivitamin can take the pressure off, guaranteeing you’re getting all the vitamins and minerals you need to stay healthy in case something unforeseen knocks you off your healthy eating routine. “Think of it as an insurance policy,” says Leslie Bonci, M.S., R.D., a dietitian at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and coauthor of Run Your Butt Off! Here are her other tips for choosing vitamins that are right for you.

Look for vitamins that are USP (United States
Pharmacopeia) verified. recommended daily amounts for iron, calcium, vitamin D, and vitamin B12. But establishing a schedule can help ensure that you stay consistent. Pick a time and try to take your vitamins daily.

Runners should select vitamins that meet or exceed the It doesn’t matter what time of day you take your vitamins. Take your vitamins with or without food.

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Mention of specific companies, organizations, or authorities in this book does not imply endorsement by the author or publisher, nor does mention of specific companies, organizations, or authorities imply that they endorse this book, its author, or the publisher. This original electronic book produced by Rodale Inc. in September 2011. © 2011 by Rodale Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any other information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the publisher. The information in this book is meant to supplement, not replace, proper exercise training. All forms of exercise pose some inherent risks. The editors and publisher advise readers to take full responsibility for their safety and know their limits. Before practicing the exercises in this book, be sure that your equipment is well-maintained, and do not take risks beyond your level of experience, aptitude, training, and fitness. The exercise and dietary programs in this book are not intended as a substitute for any exercise routine or dietary regimen that may have been prescribed by your doctor. As with all exercise and dietary programs, you should get your doctor’s approval before beginning. Rodale.com is a registered trademark of Rodale Inc. Cover and interior design by Susan Eugster Photography/Illustrations: Alamy: p. 10 (pills); Melinda Beck: p. 9; Marcos Chin: p. 3 (top); Getty Images: pp. 1, 4, 5 (treadmill); Hilmar: pp. 2 (top), 3 (bottom); Image Club Graphics: p. 10 (teeth); iStockPhoto: pp. 5 (towel), 8; Thomas MacDonald/Rodale: pp. 2 (bottom), 10 (carrots); Mitch Mandel/Rodale: pp. 5 (sneakers, trail mix), 7 (top, snack bar), 10 (edamame, chocolate bar, pudding); Lisa Sacco: p. 7 (cereal); Matthew Smith: p. 6 ISBN: 0000000123190

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