Good for you. As others have already noted, parks/trails/athletic fields have less impact, avoid cars, and are (usually) nicer environments. Some people enjoy listening to music or podcasts or chatting with other people -- do what works for you. Learning more about how to train and the sport's history may be helpful too. Consider aiming for a 5K this spring; having a variety of goals can be motivating. The fitter you get/more you run, the more fun it'll be. Talk walk breaks. Don't try to run too fast (98% of time); go as slowly as necessary to comfortable finish your day's goal. Mix in some strength and mobility work. Consistency is key; train this week so you can train next week. Track your progress. Good luck!
This. Plus, most communities have running groups. Most of them are very supportive of new runners. One of the hardest things in our running culture is we celebrate the extremes of running performance and distance. It’s easy to fall into comparing yourself to others. Even very fast runners do this because, the fact is, there is ALWAYS someone faster or fitter than ourselves. I think it was Teddy Roosevelt that said: “Comparison is the thief of Joy”.
1. Run/walk. Start with running only 30 seconds and walking 30 seconds to recover. If you aren't recovered, walk 60 seconds. If you still aren't recovered, reduce the run time to 15 seconds. Start with, say, 10-15 minutes. Build up to 30 minutes. The key here is to avoid injury and excessive soreness while your body adapts to the new movement. Just walking or hiking for 45-60 minutes will be a good workout now and as you get fitter, it will be a good workout on your easy days.
2. Avoid injuries. Go to a running store and get a gait analysis and get proper running shoes for you. Learn to tell the difference between being sore and an injury. If the pain is on one side and not the other, that's a warning that it could be a minor injury on the way to becoming a major injury.
3. Get to a gym 3x/week for 60 minutes. Your metabolism is messed up from the sedentary lifestyle. Lifting will help and it's safer to do hard efforts at the gym. You will build muscles and muscles burn more energy than fat.
4. Avoid weightlifting injuries. Get a personal trainer to show you how to do proper lifts. Avoid Olympic lifts and similar compound movements at this stage... too much risk of injury.
5. Learn about dieting and find an approach that works for you. Many foods cause cravings, for example. Generally speaking, reduce sugar, eliminate high fructose corn syrup, and reduce breads. Eat more protein and healthy fats. The diet that works for your workout buddy might not work for you.
Bottom line: You face three major obstacles: injuries, motivation, and knowledge. I agree with the other posters that said you should find something you like doing. It might be hiking, walking, weightlifting, swimming, or whatever.
Running burns about 600 cal an hour, or about two donuts, which can be eaten in less than five minutes. Losing weight is all about diet.
Yeah add my vote to this. I mentioned cleaning up your diet earlier, but this is really important. I have to run 10 miles to burn 1000 calories, whereas I could easily consume 1000 calories in under 5 minutes by slurping down a big milkshake or whatever. The poster who said you can't outrun your appetite is exactly right. I have managed to gain wait running 100 mpw because I'm hungry all the time and don't always eat right.
Get a heart rate monitor and try to run/walk 30 minutes a day while keeping your heartrate in zone 2 (or maybe zone 3 at the finish). Do that for awhile until run/walking turns to just running. Gradually increase the time you do this each day. Eat cleaner too so you're hitting both sides of the "calories in/calories out" equation.
Getting a heart rate monitor is overkill. For someone new to running, I agree that they should start by run/walking and 30 minutes sounds reasonable, but for the running parts I would include some sprinting to keep it more fun and interesting. But just don't overdo it and get injured!
Do whatever is fun for you. If you don't like slow running, run fast and take frequent breaks. On a track you might start off by running the straights and jogging or walking on the turns. But there are infinitely many variations of this, and they are all good. If you don't like running hard, run as slowly as you like and focus on increasing mileage. Inexperienced runners almost universally make the mistake of thinking that faster is better. But you gain far more from running slow-to-moderate paces and increasing your total time moving. Especially when you are trying to shed pounds.
try to avoid running on roads. grass, trails, tracks.
run/walk. run a little, walk it off, run a little, walk it off. do short distances/times and very slowly build. run straight walk curve isn't a bad idea. run 30s walk 30s. stuff like that. mix it up where it's not the same every time.
do a set distance that works you a little. go home. do the next workout. go home. don't get overambitious. eg, my mom will tell me she's back walking again, she'll jump right up to 5 or so miles, almost without fail -- and it won't be right away, it'll take a few weeks -- "my back hurts" "my knee hurts." play the long game. you will get healthier if you can stick to it.
i'd consider cross training at other sports but at your weight i wouldn't play an aggressive lateral cutting sport (soccer hoops football) because you'd stress your knees. maybe biking, swimming, pickleball, table tennis, water sports are good for beat up legs. it also helps with "not the same thing every day."
i'd do it maybe every other day so you recover a little. i rotate in biking and a tough core workout. biking takes some pounding off the legs. core stuff helps with backs.
Weight loss journeys are not running journeys, but running journeys can lead to weight loss journeys.
if you’re looking for starting a running journey, the first thing I would say is simply Have fun.
weight loss journey? Expect to dedicate a year of boredom to your diet. At the very least. Count your calories or find a sustainable way to create a daily deficit. I went from 235 to 130 and it took a very long time, but don’t get discouraged by the daily fluctuations and keep your eye on the long term goal
I am 5-9 and weigh about 205 pounds. I am of the human male species and primarly want to lose weight. What would be a fun way to begin?
Advice to every starter would be run easy for best long-term results.
An idea for the winter time might be to find some places in town to walk between the days you run. It is cold out there in many parts of the country right now! It was Super Bowl Sunday. Instead of trying to run outdoors or get in my car and go someplace indoors to walk I did some indoor stuff: 4 x 10 Jumping Jacks, Air Squats, Single leg squats between to chairs or counters, then I did a walk of all three floors in my building in 5:23, and finally finished with 30 Jumping Jacks. It is possible the JJ's might make me sore because I rarely if ever do them. But we will see. I used to do a ton of JJ's to warmup years ago.