According to the laws of physics, it takes a certain amount of calories to move a certain amount of mass at a certain speed. And that’s that. But is it all that there is to it? How does fitness and heart rate tie into it? Say a pro runner runs a mile in 6min and doesn’t even blink since that would be his warm up pace. And now a newbie runner runs the same mile in the same time and almost passes out because that is his extreme max threshold. Both weigh the same. Pro runner’s heart rate barely increased. Newbie’s heart rate is through the roof. Did both just burn the same amount of calories???
I have been getting back into running after a few months of time off and obviously in the beginning even my old “warm up” pace was like a working pace for me. Now my average “easy” pace has been increasing and perceived effort decreasing. So am I burning less calories? I don’t feel tired during or after my runs anymore either.
As a first-order approximation, speed doesn’t even factor into it. As long as the two athletes are running on a level course, calorie burn is roughly proportional to distance covered, and it’s roughly proportional to the runner’s weight. A good starting approximation is that a 160 pound person will burn about 100 calories per mile of running. This may be variable across a wide population, but it will at least tell you if a calorie estimator is grossly over or under reporting your efforts.
According to the laws of physics, it takes a certain amount of calories to move a certain amount of mass at a certain speed. And that’s that. But is it all that there is to it? How does fitness and heart rate tie into it? Say a pro runner runs a mile in 6min and doesn’t even blink since that would be his warm up pace. And now a newbie runner runs the same mile in the same time and almost passes out because that is his extreme max threshold. Both weigh the same. Pro runner’s heart rate barely increased. Newbie’s heart rate is through the roof. Did both just burn the same amount of calories???
I have been getting back into running after a few months of time off and obviously in the beginning even my old “warm up” pace was like a working pace for me. Now my average “easy” pace has been increasing and perceived effort decreasing. So am I burning less calories? I don’t feel tired during or after my runs anymore either.
Ah, grasshopper.
Ponder not the physics of the journey.
The journey is all !
Running economy could account for a bit of a difference in calories burned. Would guesstimate something in the ballpark of 10-20% difference could be possible between a pro and a regular runner.
But although running economy varies by individual, it doesn’t tend to vary much by speed. Unless your form completely falls apart (possible), the amount of calories burned to run a 10 minute mile is about the same as the calories burned running a 6 minute mile.
Running economy could account for a bit of a difference in calories burned. Would guesstimate something in the ballpark of 10-20% difference could be possible between a pro and a regular runner.
But although running economy varies by individual, it doesn’t tend to vary much by speed. Unless your form completely falls apart (possible), the amount of calories burned to run a 10 minute mile is about the same as the calories burned running a 6 minute mile.
This. It will vary much more with weight than it will with pace.
As you go from being not fit to being fit your body’s ability to produce the amount of energy required (to run a given pace) improves. Stroke volume, capillary density, mitochondrial density, muscle mass, all change much more rapidly at the beginning of training. Yes, your running economy improves but not enough to account for that change. Assuming no change in body weight, you are still burning the ***roughly ***same amount of energy to cover one mile. You are just much better at producing it.
OK, racing and competitiveness aside, what is the benefit of running g faster (or striving to run faster), then? Does it make one stronger? I would assume that pushing oneself to run faster creates a greater risk of injuries and yet it doesn’t burn more calories…
OK, racing and competitiveness aside, what is the benefit of running g faster (or striving to run faster), then? Does it make one stronger? I would assume that pushing oneself to run faster creates a greater risk of injuries and yet it doesn’t burn more calories…
It certainly burns more calories, you just have to run faster for longer - thus running further!
OK, racing and competitiveness aside, what is the benefit of running g faster (or striving to run faster), then? Does it make one stronger? I would assume that pushing oneself to run faster creates a greater risk of injuries and yet it doesn’t burn more calories…
If you have an hour to run, would you burn more calories running 10 min miles or 8 min miles during that hour?
If you aren’t worried about “racing”, the only benefit i can see is that you’ll be able to travel farther during a specific time period…if you measure your running work by miles traveled, then there really isn’t a “benefit”.
OK, racing and competitiveness aside, what is the benefit of running g faster (or striving to run faster), then? Does it make one stronger? I would assume that pushing oneself to run faster creates a greater risk of injuries and yet it doesn’t burn more calories…
If you have an hour to run, would you burn more calories running 10 min miles or 8 min miles during that hour?
If you aren’t worried about “racing”, the only benefit i can see is that you’ll be able to travel farther during a specific time period…if you measure your running work by miles traveled, then there really isn’t a “benefit”.
If you are running for an hour in both pace situations (8min/mile and 10min/mile), then you are running further doing 8min/miles - thus burning more calories.
In the above example, assuming a 150 pound person, you’d burn approx. 170 more calories running 8min/miles opposed to 10min/miles for an hour.
Running and swimming can be compared in 2 parts. You mechanics that determine your efficiency of you motion and your power output. Cycling can be considered the same way, but efficiency is determined by aero drag and rolling resistance. There’s not a whole of variation in efficiency due to pedaling technique. It can impact muscle fatigue however, but you won’t generate power more or less efficiently, generally speaking.
So if the mechanics are the same, the runner that that is moving faster, is generating more power output… or rather a higher relative power output (w/kg).
Elite runners & elite swimmers are both higher efficient in their mechanics AND they have big engines relative to their weight or with swimmers, relative to their drag generated. Swimming has the challenge of needing to be efficient in both applying power as well as cutting the smallest hole through and on top of the water.
If you want to swim bike or run faster you need to get more efficient and/or make more power… and be able to sustain that power level over the duration of the event. That ability includes fatigue resistance and nutrition.
… this remind me of a debate I had years ago with a college of mine at work…of course, an engineer. He couldn’t be convinced that the rate you could burn equal calories in cycling as in running over the same duration. I tried to explain to him that because he was probably less trained at cycling (since people walk and occasionally run, even a sedentary person already has some adaptation for running) he couldn’t generate the same energy output with those muscles. But in fact, because it’s low impact, you can ride a lot longer before failure and ultimately burn a lot more calories cycling. He never believed me. But he was an arrogant, stubborn, smug sob like that. He’s one of only about 3 people in my life that I legitimately have wanted to punch in the face after throwing me under the bus to cover up their own ignorance and incompetence. The truth always came out later. Neither is still with the company.
OK, racing and competitiveness aside, what is the benefit of running g faster (or striving to run faster), then? Does it make one stronger? I would assume that pushing oneself to run faster creates a greater risk of injuries and yet it doesn’t burn more calories…
running faster means you can cover more distance in the same time, so will burn more calories in a given time. There’s some evidence that higher efforts will keep metabolism elevated for longer after the run.
Also, speed is good
nice… so after an hour of hard biking, I qualify for 22.1 Budweiser Select 55
Not sure I could physically manage 22 beers in a night… plus, it’s Budweiser, so more like a punishment than a beer
