Practice running. Don't aim for long distances. Do a little of a bit a day. No one achieves something overnight like the ironic Chinese statement 'No one becomes fat with a single meal.'
Don't over-exhaust yourself. Take a little bit of running or exercise a day. Gradually increase it. Everyone wants some magical miracle that transform their lives and make them into a good side of themselves by rejecting features they don't like. Sadly, karate is not one of them. Nothing is.
Time is an obstacle you need to go through.
Now if your foremost aim is getting in shape and lose weight as well as increasing your athleticism. Choosing a karate school that's emphasized on sport, on improving health may give you a commitment and sense of fun at the same time.
Though choose a wrong school, you would either develop a hate for karate pretty quick, or fight someone else's war without getting your goal of losing weight. Karate will help you only less than a professional help from a physical trainer or physical activities you are committed to.
Note running faster may not result in losing weight. Muscle is more dense than fat. Increasing your muscle-fat ratio could have the opposite effect on your weight. Not decrease it. Weight isn't a sole indicator of fitness or health. There's no one way to measure things. Even BMI comes with controversy.
I'm not here to persuade you away from taking karate, if you want to study karate, take it by all means. Think on context. Self defense, go to self defense classical school. Losing weight, try all the way from wkf to kyokushin, if you are generally trying to get some healthy lifestyle go to any modern karate school.
It's just that karate is nowadays either practiced as a martial art system, not for fitness but damage and character improvement, a stage combat, and sport that involves you being good at sport. Sport is a form of exercise but the 2 are not synonymous.
Don't worry. They'll whip you into shape. You also don't have to run really fast either but you will need some stamina. So if you run slow but can run for a long time then that is good too.
Just join the classes.
Start karate, don't worry about not being in shape. Karate will get you in shape. Your other questions are not related.
if you stick with the karate, you can after awhile pull your instructor aside and ask how you can get in better shape. he'll probably be happy to give you some advice
edit: yahoo ate my last edit. just wanted to say, Excellent answer, Marlene!
Some karate helps burn fat but walking and running either plus karate burns more fat.
Any martial arts training will get you in better shape. You can also lift heavy weights if you want to get stronger.
So, here is the thing alright. I want to start karate but I am worried about not being in proper shape. I'm not fat yet im not thin and for some reason since ever i was small I could have never run fast. I am currently 13 years old and still the slowest person in my class. There is basically two questions here. How do I run faster and lose weight?
