The distance is the same, but your burn more calories while running. Also does temperature affect the effectiveness of your workout? Does running a mile in 90 degree weather burn more calories than doing the same distance in 50 degrees?
In: Biology
Running is less efficient than walking. When you run, you exert a lot more force via your legs and arms, violently ramming your feet into the ground, while furiously flinging your arms to keep balance. (overexaggerated for effect)
So you spend more total energy than if you simply slow-walked the same distance, where you have a much finer control over how much your body parts move and with how much force.
There is a trade-off with the total time it takes, as breathing and heartbeat and thinking and keeping warm all consume energy over time as well, but there is a sweet spot for most efficient movement somewhere between a slow stroll and a hard run, and it’s much closer to the slow stroll.
So if your intention is to conserve energy, go slow. If you want to burn fat, also go slow, because you can keep that up for much longer than running hard, thus burning more calories overall. If you want to burn as many calories as you can in a fixed amount of time, run fast. 🙂
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