WORKOUT – Ran
18.0 miles/2:22
no music, mostly flat, couple rollers
Last night I formulated a workout plan for the morning:
If I woke up early enough on my own, I’d go to a Piloxing class at Xtend barre at 6am. If not, I’d run.
{weighted gloves for Piloxing}
I woke up at 6:30am… so running it was. I headed over to Newport to run Back Bay. I had only had one cup of coffee (ran out of creamer, a travesty) which means I was functioning on 1/10 brain power and forgot breakfast.
GU to the rescue! I found two in my car and ate those at miles 8.5 and 13.
Thanks to all of you who purchased an SR shirt this past weekend. These are the ones that are still available if you’re interested:
Email me at sr@skinnyrunner.com for sizes, etc.
CALORIES BURNED
This past weekend Reese and I had a conversation about how many calories you burn while running. I always thought that a person burned the same amount of calories per mile regardless of speed. You’re moving the same amount of weight the same distance so you would burn the same amount of calories regardless of whether the mile took you 8 minutes running or 28 minutes walking, right?
WRONG.
According to this Runner’s World article, running a mile burns about 50% more calories than walking that same distance.
Running and walking aren’t as comparable as I had imagined. When you walk, you keep your legs mostly straight, and your center of gravity rides along fairly smoothly on top of your legs.
In running, we actually jump from one foot to the other. Each jump raises our center of gravity when we take off, and lowers it when we land, since we bend the knee to absorb the shock. This continual rise and fall of our weight requires a tremendous amount of Newtonian force (fighting gravity) on both takeoff and landing.
The article goes on to say that total calorie burn (TCB) is a useless number; we should be looking at net calorie burn (NCB) instead.
For example, I go run a mile and burn 97 calories, but if I was sitting on my couch instead of running, I’d still be burning some calories just being lazy so the resting metabolic calories (parking your butt on the couch) need to be subtracted from the 97 to get an accurate number.
This sexy beast is still burning calories.
The bottom line: Running is a phenomenal calorie-burning exercise. In public-health terms–that is, in the fight against obesity–it’s even more important that running is a low-cost, easy-to-do, year-round activity.
Walking doesn’t burn as many calories, but it remains a terrific exercise. As David Swain says, "The new research doesn’t mean that walking burns any fewer calories than it used to. It just means that walkers might have to walk a little more, or eat a little less, to hit their weight goal.
Enough math and science already. I don’t want people to start getting the wrong idea, that SR is an educational site or some crap like that.
PUPPY BLING
Reader Kaye asked for more pictures of my lover… my wish is your command.
You can kinda see the tweedy texture of our new couch. I talk as if I actually know what the heck I’m talking about. I don’t.
**Get your bad self together and go enter the blinging giveaway.
**If you wanna win a BIKE, check out CLICK’s giveaway. I had my Mocha CLICK smoothie (with coffee instead of water) this morning post-run.
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{ 48 comments… read them below or add one }
That was very interesting , thank you for sharing. I was under the (clearly false!) impression that I burned about 100 calories per mile whether I was walking or running. Now I’m depressed about the low calorie burn!
i thought the same thing so now im going to drown my sorrows in something full of calories. like cream cheese frosting. and then ill go walk 40 miles to burn it off.
I have argued with my husband about this before. Ah-hah! I WAS right! Thanks so much for sharing!
Ugh I wish walking burned the same amount of Cals, I’d walk to the west coast…
And I love how you put the pup’s bed ON the couch. Like you encourage her to break those rules of no puppies on the couch (which I do every single day). She’s such a queen!
This is really interesting- I had always heard that you burned the same amount of calories running as walking the same distance. Interesting! I wonder if speed matters too?
If I only burn 31 calories per mile while walking, I swear I’m never walking for exercise again!
(OK that might be a slight exaggeration, but man, that’s like a third of a cookie!
)
As a runner, how closely do you monitor your calorie intake? Can you tell a difference in your performance if you eat more healthy? I would assume since you run so many miles a day, that you wouldn’t need to monitor calories so much? I’m probably wrong
Wait, do you mix Click with coffee? How?? I need to try this!
I was just talking about walking vs. running thanks so much for sharing. I love the texture of your new couch.
Love your dog! Running question – any tips for running a marathon in the rain? Im running a marathon at the Jersey Shore this weekend and its supposed to rain!! Yuck. I think it will be in the low 60′s so not too cold. Or will I be cold since it may be breezy next to the ocean ? I am having a major clothing dilemma/freakout.
Hey! Are those race bib coasters? Pretty cool!
yes! i love them. they’re from this etsy store: http://www.etsy.com/shop/26MileStones
I love her shop!!! I give all of my runner friends gift cards to her shop before they run their first marathon or 1/2. She does an awesome job and I love mine!
Great run today! I just moved to RI and am having a hard time finding good running routes… I’ve heard of Back Bay and Save the bay, but where is it? Care to share your running route? I mainly encounter wooded areas, with no sides to the roads that are so dangerous to run on.
you might be thinking of newport, rhode island? im out in southern california.
Great article to help with the age old debate about walking vs. running.
Thanks for the article! It’s always good to keep in mind the caloric burn differences if you’re trying to watch your weight (down, maintain, or gain, you have to pay attention to calories to get your goals).
And yeah, where’d you get those coasters?! Those are great!
They’re from an etsy shop. scroll up to another comment and i posted the link there. arent they cute?!
Wow, so interesting! I’m so jealous you get to wake up and run by the beach…. although Chicago has had over a week of 80 degree days
Missed you at Piloxing this morning! It was a great class and got some regulars now.
See you Friday for barre bootcamp?
I’ve been LOVING the click lately!! Thanks for the introduction. And I love the bling too, of course!
I read an article today that said changing up from running to walking works different muscles for you get a different burn if you try walking a 10 minute mile, instead of running a 10 minute mile. I know when I was dogsitting I would try to walk fast with the pup and I totally agree, there were muscles that were sore the next day that I haven’t felt in a while.
Thanks for the info! I’m an exercise physiologist and didn’t even know this. Maybe I should read my RW a little more closely and try to stay up to date on the latest news!
Also, with the calorie burn thing, if you do a certain exercise a lot, your muscles get used to that exercise and it isn’t as effective anymore. You don’t burn as many calories as you used to and have to work harder to get the same results as you did in the beginning.
For example, I might burn only 75 calories a mile because I run all the time as opposed to someone else that burns 100 calories because they don’t run all the time.
That’s why they say changing up the type of exercise you do regularly is so important.
I have both of those shirts, love them!
What?! So, all these times I have been justifying walking the xx blocks (~2 miles) to a bakery to get a cupcake thinking I was burning 200 calories (“they” whoever they is always said 100 cals/mile), I WAS WRONG AND BEING LIED TO?!?
This explains so much.
But, it’s true – in terms of public health, running or walking is cheap and pretty effective. Diabetes medication is not cheap.
Not only was this an awesome scientific blog post (I am a social scientist after all) — I get a shout out & an awesome puppy pic! Yay! I ran 7m today because I got lost. Looks like I should have run even more by those net cal burn calculations! ha ha
How many calories do I burn while sleeping? Every bit counts!
I recently found this out as well!! Before I found out, I always wondered why I bothered running when I could just walk. My reason was because it was faster.
I walked a 5k last fall with my little guy & almost died of boredom! That’s a lot of walking.
Thanks for the chart!
This is a great post! This is actually really funny… we learned about this exact topic in my Physiology of Exercise class today. It was obvious a lot of the class were under the impression that the two burned the same amount of calories, when in fact they do not. I’d much rather run any number of miles than walk. When I’m walking somewhere I just want to start running to get there faster!
Marni is so cute!!!!!
Great info. I’m glad I’ve started running. Not exactly setting the world on fire with my speed or distance, but I guess you gotta start somewhere. Seeing your trillion miles, helps me get through my 5. =)
Yep–learned this in an exercise science class in college-and it totally blew my mind (and then it made sense once I got smarter. hah).
That is one blingin’ giveaway….wow
I wish I had read this post earlier! I literally just posted my own little experiment on the subject. However, I did not even consider the use of your body as a factor in calorie burn. I just used distance as my comparison and the calorie burn was the same. Guess thats the downside of relying on your runkeeper or garmins to calculate approx calorie burn. This post actually made me feel better about my runs! I was starting to think I should just walk every where!
I’m excited about my shirt!
Too many numbers…….. my brain hurts….. Just kidding, I love math. Jealous of the beach view however. There’s no beach view in the near future for me, so I’ll just live vicariously through you. Which works out well because your weekly mileage is like my yearly mileage….
You are killing me. I am pushing 60 and ran 6 miles at 14 minute pace today. I swear I was running. Maybe not?
Your best bud, Monica, also had the same (or almost similar!) title post when I opened Google Reader just now!
http://runeatrepeat.com/2012/03/21/how-many-calories-burned-running/
im going to punch her in the face.
Great run…. The information about the run/walk is something that I knew but a good reminder. I see people out walking sometimes, trying to lose weight, and I think (but don’t say) if you just turned that walk into a slow jog, you’d burn so many more calories, because I think it’s someething people don’t know.
Walking is a GREAT way to lose weight, I lost 100 pounds with walking as my main form of exercise before transitioning to running. It’s kind of the gateway drug to running
amazing! congrats on your loss!!
Interesting – most interesting is the rather low numbers for kcal burn for either; many people assume the “100 calorie per mile” rule but I know for my weight there is no way that could be true! I think as I become a more efficient runner that this number drops even more.
I think we all need to remember that some exercise is better than no exercise. Walking for exercise is certainly better than not exercising at all. We need to remember that not everyone’s physiology supports running. Especially those who are overweight, have injuries, etc. I don’t think you were trying to frown upon walkers, but it seems like a few of the comments have been. Orthopaedic injuries cost the health system money too
and it is important for each person to find an exercise that works for them.
absolutely! do what you can, doesnt need to be a marathon.
Where did you get the capris you are wearing in the picture with your shirts? They are so cute, I doubt I would look as cute in a pair but worth a shot!
they are from lululemon, the run crop. really expensive but man, they’re nice!
Thank you! I’ll check them out and get a second job to pay for them
I ran in my shirt and I really love it. It’s big enough to be comfortable but not so big I get rashes under my arms. Which I know is weird but I do
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