Will an athlete who runs for an hour at moderate pace and is not tired at the end burn more calories than an out of shape person who runs for an hour a way shorter distance but is exhausted at the end?
Assuming both have the same weight and such
What I want to know basically is if your body gets stronger will it need less energy to perform the same amount of work?
In: 1708
To your latter question, not _significantly_.
By and large, it takes the same amount of energy to do the same thing, regardless of fitness. But the _same thing_ is important. If the weight is different, height, weather… that’s not the same thing. Ultimately what you are doing is moving your body against the forces of gravity, air pressure, friction, and so on. As long as all those are the same, the fitness component is small.
There are _some_ efficiency gains from training — that is, your body wastes less energy when it converts it to useful work — but they are not substantial, just a few percentage points (most of the wasted energy is converted to heat).
So the reason a trained athlete is faster or stronger or whatever is because they are able to use more energy than the beginner.
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