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Thursday, March 17, 2011

32 miles = One Pound




Running demands a massive amount of oxygen and produces a vast amount of heat.   According to  my treadmill and online calorie counters, one mile of running burns off approximately 110 calories which is about 460 joules of energy.  One pound is 3200 calories and that means that I would have to run a little over 31 miles to burn off 1lb. Kind of mind blowing if you think about it. This is why the combination of caloric restriction and exercise is imperative to a weight loss program. I mean this is the plain science behind weight loss. Yeah it gets a lot more complicated, but here it is.  The good news is that if you modify your diet and cut out 600 calories, that is 6 miles you don’t have to run!!!! Yeah if  it were only that simple right?


My initial reaction to this research was wow 31 miles is a long way to go to burn a pound. How does anyone lose weight? The thing is that weight loss is enigmatic, and it’s not as simple as a little bit of mathematics. It would almost be nice if losing weight, putting the miles down, and cutting calories was all a nice tidy equation. Sometimes losing weight feels like believing in God.......You just have to find some faith!!! 

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