Hi,

Its me again. I just started the C25K with the aim of losing weight and bringing some vitality to my work out routine as I regularly go the gym but am getting bored. But I have been doing some research and I see all over where people say that they have used the program and have not lost weight. Some say that they lose inches but no weight, some say that they have not lost weight/inches at all.

I really dont want to do this if I am not going to lose weight. I know that I will feel better emotionally from having achieved the goal of being able to run 3 miles but I still want to see the number on the scale going down!

I have a run scheduled this evening and would like to clear this up in my mind.

Can anyone help?

I completed C25K this summer, and I am one of the ones who did not lose weight but did lose inches. I got incredibly toned and was obviously exchanging fat for muscle. I was getting smaller though not lighter. When I reached a point where running was "easy" and I was able to add other exercise to my routine, I started dropping pounds again.

I have a friend who is doing C25K. He's in W8 and has lost 21 pounds! Of course, he's a guy, and their metabolism is different, so maybe that doesn't count.

I'm not sure what would cause one to not lose weight OR inches while doing C25K. It seems odd that you would see no effect whatsoever.

I think that depends on each individual, but as for my personal experience it took a while before the scale started moving downward. I did see a difference in how my clothes fit, but wasn't losing pounds too fast at all. Some weeks I would even gain weight. But I think that is from building muscle. And your muscles also retain water after a workout, something else to keep in mind. The first thing I DID notice, was that I felt thinner! I felt healthier and could really tell my body was changing quickly.

If you want to lose weight, the more muscle you have the more calories your body burns even at rest. It is most definitely working for me. But, like I said someone else's experience may be totally different.

Well...I don't know anything about C25K, but I'm assuming it some sort of running program. If so, then it should definately burn lots of calories. Now...whether or not you will lose weight, gain or maintain depends upon your diet. Remember...exercise simply helps create a deficit, the biggest deficit should come from diet.

I've been running (my own program called 'watch your heartrate girl') for 4 weeks...and have lost 15 lbs. Of course my diet is calorie/fat/carb controlled (BistroMD), so this helps alot as well. I'm already seeing more definition in my legs and my entire body has basically strunk! I know from my past dieting experiences that I could not have achieved such quick results on the scale and in the mirror had it not been for running.

Another point to ponder...look at runnners....long time runners...observe their physical appearance, this will give you some idea of what you can expect down the road. Hope this helps a bit.

Happy running

I lost three pounds during the program, but dropped a dress size.

And then I continued to lose more afterwards as my fitness level was so much higher and my metabolism had altered.

Don't knock exchanging fat for muscle. I would rather be 140 and toned than 140 and flabby.

That's so true....

I am curios about this too. I have never been a runner but I was thinking about starting the prpogram (probably slower; stay on weeks longer if need be). Good luck!

I'm in week 2 and I am not dropping pounds yet, but I do feel better. Much better...it's almost like the person I want to be comes out when I do the jogging parts. Good luck with your decision.

I am going to do my run this evening and evaluate from there. Its something that I always wanted to do....be a runner.

I guess I am just anxious to lose the last 9 - 13 lbs that's why I am hesistating to continue as I just want to get to goal and focus on maintaining.

That is so perfectly said!

I loosely follow a running schedule similar to the C25k program, but I drag out each stage a bit longer because I am so heavy and my body needs more time to adjust to each increase in distance. I have seen it really help speed my weight loss, and it helped me break a plateau, but I am also counting my calories. You cannot expect to lose weight on any exercise program unless you are monitoring your caloric intake. Otherwise, your body will crave more calories to make up for what it's burning. Of course, this can still be great if your goal is only to tone up and lose flab.

I'm not doing c25k but I have started getting back into running - I had been doing other aerobic tapes and haven't been seeing the results I've wanted to so I'm hitting the treadmill again. Earlier in my 20s I had great success loosing weight via running so I'm giving it a second shot. I think if you keep pushing your running limits and keep an eye out in your diet, you'll see a loss. good luck!

I just started c25k on the treadmill and noticed that the treadmill only logged me as having burned 100 calories or so. So, I think many of the people here and around the Internet are right: this isn't a weight loss thing and you have to incorporate other cardio and watch your diet to keep losing weight.

Personally, I don't have a problem with that and I think working out with a goal in mind (ie: finish the program) is very motivating. Sometimes regular cardio at the gym can feel like a hamster spinning in a wheel. And like others.. I would rather be toned and smaller and maybe not necessarily weigh substantially less.

YMMV!

Certainly in the frst few weeks, you aren't running a very long way, so the calories burned are fewer - it's more about building fitness and stamina.

But as you run farther you will burn more. At my weight, I burn about 100 calories per mile run. So by the end, if you can run the full three miles, you wil be burning 300 calories in the run, not counting the warm up walk.

At 600 calories per hour on average (running 6 mph), running is one of the best exercises for calorie burning.

I'm starting week 3 of C25k, only on the treadmill so far since it's still very hot outside here. I was very surprised to see how low the number of "calories burned" was on the treadmill compared to the elliptical I usually do (at pretty high resistance).

I mean, I know the calorie estimates on those machines can be far from accurate, but given the same weight and heart rate to calculate from, clearly the treadmill thinks I am burning less than the elliptical machine does. And on the elliptical I'm at my so called 85% heart rate most of the time while on the running program I'm not really hitting it yet.