What Research Says
In 2004, a study was done by researchers at Syracuse University which was aimed at answering this very question. They took a group of 12 men and 12 women and had them all run 1,600m (roughly 1 mile) in order to examine the amount of calories they burned.
The Results? The men averaged 124 calories burned, and the women 105. Generally speaking, men burn more calories than women because they weigh more. The more someone weighs, the more calories they’ll burn during any particular activity.
4 Laps of a Track = 1 Mile
Given that it takes most people around 9-10 minutes (on average) to run a mile, running has proven itself to be a fantastic fat-burning activity. If your main goal is to lose weight then I’d say that there is arguably no better exercise than running to burn off those excess pounds.
The Walking vs. Running Rumour
Not long ago I read an article that stated it didn’t matter if you ran or walked a mile because in the end, you’d burn the exact same amount of calories. This was an interesting concept, and at the surface, it seemed to make sense. If you walk, you’re going to be exercising for a longer period than you would if you were running, but, if you were running, you’d be working harder than you would if you were walking. It’s definitely conceivable that these two could equal each other out.
Running Outside Is Always Better Than A Treadmill
A couple of comments on this article argued that this actually wasn’t true, and that running a mile does indeed burn more calories than walking a mile.
Busting the Rumour Mill
I decided to look into it for myself. Luckily, the very same researchers from Syracuse University that looked at how many calories the average person burned running a mile, also looked at how many calories the average person burned while walking a mile. They took the exact same test subjects from the running experiment, and got them to walk 1,600m (roughly 1 mile). After that mile, researchers recorded that men had burned 88 calories while walking, and women 74.
Indeed, they proved that running does burn at least 25% more calories than walking, over the same distance. But why is this? Well, it comes down to the way we move during each type of exercise. While walking, your legs are kept mostly straight, and your centre of gravity is fixed quite firmly on top of your legs.
Music Is A Great Distraction When Running
When running, you actually “jump” from one foot to the other. During these jumps, our centre of gravity rises and falls, since we bend the knee to absorb the shock. This continuous rising and falling takes a huge amount of Newtonian Force (to fight against gravity) on both takeoff and landing. It is this that makes running more strenuous on the body, and thus a better fat burning workout. It’s too bad, I would have really liked this rumour to be true!
