How many miles should the average person run in one week?

Question

I run at least a mile every other day and walk at a fast pace for another 1.5 to 2 miles. I'm trying to lose some weight, but from other people's experience, the distance I run doesn't seem to be a suffiecient amount. Plus, all the running seems to show no results. How many miles should an average person run each week?

Answer 1

Generally, to lose weight efficiently, you'd have to run 20 miles a week.

Answer 2

I'm no trainer, but I do know that when my metabolism is low, it can take a while for it to speed up. A mile is not a great distance when you are accustomed to running, but it's good for a gradual ascent towards a naturally increasing aptitude. You shouldn't worry, change will come if you keep it up. I would really recommend cross training with yoga or pilates. Doing so will even out your body and stabilize your energy, as well as stabilize/raise your metabolism. You shouldn't worry so much about what 'average' means to others as much as what it means to you, and then try to improve your levels and psychologically own it.

If you're having trouble losing any weight, the problem is most likely something out of balance in your diet. If you are interested, "psychetruth" youtube channel has a really great nutritionist, natalie, with innumerable videos and great  information about the basics of body dynamics and how food is incorporated by your body.

I pepper my yoga and dance practices with running, but it's not my meat and potatoes, it's just more for adrenaline rushes and getting outside. When I ran a lot, at my healthiest (I should say most active), I ran between 3-5 miles every two days or so. The great thing about running is that is so motivating when you are doing it. It really triggers your willpower. But you can burn out on running- both physically and mentally/emotionally- so it's good to have a more grounding exercise to counter it.

Answer 3

this may seem against what would seem logical, but JOGGING burns more fat than running does.  try to go for a long, slow run a few times a week in conjunction with a healthy diet.  try to increase distance/time to 4 miles per run or 40 min (remember this is a nice SLOW pace to burn fat)

Answer 4

Once you want to run to become in better shape and lose weight I would say approx. 12-20 miles per week.  5 days a week with a long run of 5 Mi. once a week isn't going to be over doing it.....just got to work up to it.  Only increase your mileage like 10% each week.  Look at it this way,  you probably are only burning about 90-120 calories per mile so to lose weight you need to first eat right/drink right, then add some muscle doing light weights (muscles burn calories much quicker than fat), and then run/walk some to lose unwanted lbs.        Good Luck

Answer 5

I only start to lose weight when I run over 20 miles a week, anything less and I just maintain.  I know people who run over 80 miles a week, though, and maintain their weight by adjusting their diet accordingly.  Honestly, this is so variable depending on your diet and exercise, that there really is no magic number.  But if you aren't losing, then try adding more mileage and make sure that you don't increase your diet in response!  A lot of people eat more when they run because they think they've earned it, which may be true but will NOT help you lose weight.