How to burn fat and train for a marathon – no matter how fit you are

Spectators watching the thousands running this weekend will fall into two camps. There will be those seeing runners gurning with cramps and hearing stories about chafing nipples, toenails falling off or inadvertent defecation and thinking: “Why would anyone want to do that?”

The second camp will be watching the participants push through the wall and reach the finish line and think “Wow, I would love to do that one day”.

Well with the right training, no matter how unhealthy you are today, next year you could be joining them.

And if you package your efforts into an epic goal, like doing a marathon, there are other returns too. The simple act of preparing for it will bring brain-boosting, heart-friendly, lifespan-enhancing benefits.

Running coach, sports scientist and founder of Performance Physique, Arj Thiruchelvam, says all abilities can benefit from marathon preparation – only the training programme will differ.

“The average person who does a bit of training and is relatively aerobically fit, even if they don’t do running, would probably need about 16 to 20 weeks”, he says. That would also apply to people who dabble in running but have never run a race.

“If you’re a complete novice and you’ve got no training history, you’re looking at six months to prepare. Regular runners who haven’t ever gone the distance of a marathon but have done half marathons might need as little as three weeks.”

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A study has found that while running may not be an efficient way to lose weight, done over a lifetime, it can prevent the accumulation of age-related fat and help preserve muscle. Initially, when we start running our bodies respond to increased activity by slowing our metabolisms as a protective measure against starvation.

But over time, that effect balances out and continued running or other endurance exercises can enhance the way your body handles its fat stores.

The research, published in the February edition of Frontiers in Sports and Active Living, took scans to assess body composition and found that older runners had lower fat mass than younger people who did strength training alone. They were also less likely to lose muscle as they got older, a process called sarcopenia, which happens as we age.

“Training for a marathon or taking up any kind of longer-form endurance exercise can significantly enhance your body’s ability to burn fat for fuel over the long term,” says Dr Richard Bruce, senior lecturer in cardiac physiology at King’s College London. “It does this by increasing the efficiency with which we can get oxygen from the environment into our muscles.”

“With long-term exercise training, your heart will get larger, which means it can pump a greater amount of blood per minute. That enables more oxygen to be delivered to the muscle as oxygen is transported in the blood.”

The effect of that in your muscles is an increase in what is known as “capillary density” which means more blood vessels around the muscles, allowing more oxygen to be delivered into it. This can change the metabolism within the muscle which “over time changes the balance of how much fat we use as a fuel source instead of just glucose from food,” says Dr Bruce.

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One significant aspect of endurance training is “Zone 2 training”. This is running, jogging or other aerobic activity done at moderate intensities for longer periods of at least 30 minutes at a steady pace where you could hold a broken conversation or at 70 per cent of your body’s maximum heart rate.

It primarily targets the aerobic energy system, which relies on oxygen to produce energy. By consistently training in “Zone 2” a few times a week, you can enhance your ability to burn fat as a fuel source.

This kind of aerobic exercise increases the number of mitochondria in your muscle cells – powerhouses responsible for converting fat and glucose into energy. The more mitochondria you have in your muscles, the more efficient your body becomes at burning fat for fuel, not only when you’re exercising but also when you’re not.

“That’s really beneficial because our fat stores are vast and could last us days, whereas our bodies use up the glucose in our muscles as fuel very quickly,” says Dr Bruce.

The good news is you don’t have to be an athlete to benefit. In fact, it might be better if you’re not. “A sedentary person who doesn’t do any kind of exercise that starts doing a little bit, for example, a 30-minute run, jog or brisk walk a week and builds that up, will get more benefits than if an elite athlete were to do the same amount,” says Dr Bruce.

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Aerobic exercise can also increase the level of muscle in your body and muscle is more metabolically active than fat. But having said that, the average marathon runner isn’t exactly a rippling mass of muscle.

“A lot of endurance runners will neglect the muscle-building aspect for fear of becoming bulky, which is in fact very difficult,” says Thiruchelvam. “As a result, their body can be low in muscle mass which is the thing that influences your metabolism to the greatest extent. So, if you want the greatest benefits to your metabolism, you need to build more muscle alongside your aerobic training.”

He advises adding at least two sessions of weight training or resistance exercise each week. In fact, in the February research mentioned above, the older athletes with the lowest fat mass were those who did resistance training throughout their lives as well as running.

It’s also helpful against injury. “More muscle on your legs like your quadriceps, hamstrings and the muscles in your calves help to protect areas like the knees and ankles that are prone to injury in people who run,” he advises.

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“Ideally two sessions focusing on the muscles of the whole body,” says Thiruchelvam. “Include as many movements that use multiple muscles as you can, so a deadlift, a squat, a bench press, a bent over row – these kinds of movements work hard for each exercise. Aim for four sets of eight repetitions, with quite a long period of rest, at least two and a half minutes in between each set.”

Thiruchelvam also suggests adding some plyometric activity – skipping, jumping or hopping moves. He alternates some of these moves with the lifting moves in resistance training sessions and with the drills on running days.

“It’s called French contrast training and the added plyometrics improve your running technique, your ground contact timing and how well your tendons are able to react to stimulus, so they’ll be able to fire you forwards on each step a little bit better.”

You need a minimum of three runs a week, says Thiruchelvam. “About 75-80 per cent of these runs should be easy, slow running,” he says. This would be your Zone 2 training where you can sustain a broken conversation. “The remaining 20-25 per cent should be more intense activities like interval training or tempo running.”

Tempo running, also known as threshold running, is where you run at a sustained level but feel “comfortably uncomfortable”; at a pace you can maintain for about 20 minutes. “It helps improve your lactate threshold, which is the point where your muscles fatigue, so you can run at a faster pace for longer”, says Thiruchelvam.

“As the marathon programme progresses you move away from intervals and the majority of your high-intensity exercise will come from your threshold running.”

But what if you’re a complete beginner? “For someone who is out of shape and running is completely new to them, their easy running sessions might be a brisk walk for 30 minutes to start with,” he says.

When you’re ready, you’d start to alternate jogging and walking, he says. “Start off with a rule of three to one or four to one in two-minute blocks. For example, your run might be 30 seconds running and then your walk might be one and a half minutes. The next stage might be 45 seconds running and one minute 15 walking, increasing the running amount over time until suddenly you’re not walking at all.”

And once you’re running, what’s most important isn’t intensity, it’s consistency. And when you’re doing your easy runs, keep them easy. “I see so many people getting injured because they are obsessed with running faster on Strava or turning up to Parkrun and running a personal best each week.

“That’s ego running and can lead to injury when in fact, we need to slow everything down, keep in your zone as a lot of the benefits are gained at lower intensities. You don’t have to get faster every week. For some of my clients, I only change their paces once a month.”

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Research suggests running alone won’t help you lose weight, you need to change your diet to fuel your runs without overeating. Your plate needs to be balanced – a quarter starchy foods like white or sweet potatoes, brown or white rice or other wholegrains, a quarter protein like lean meat, fish, chicken, eggs, tofu or beans and half vegetables of different colours. The latter contain enzymes essential for the absorption of other foods.

If you’re doing two 30-minute runs a week, your food needs will be fewer than someone who is clocking up five hours of running each week as your calorie expenditure will be lower. But it’s a good idea to aim for a carb snack an hour before your run to stay well-fuelled. It could be as simple as a piece of toast with jam or a banana.

When it comes to race day nutrition, marathon runners usually fuel up with simple carbohydrates, aiming for 25-80 grams an hour, depending on how far through they are and how they’re feeling. But, in the spectator zone that’s racing ahead – much better to focus on how to get from your couch to there next year.

For easy and marathon paces and the different training zones, watch this video from Arj Thiruchelvam to find out more