Running calories per mile: how many do you burn?

Running calories per mile.  How many do I burn?

That's a question that's in the minds of lots of runners. Especially those who've started running to lose some weight. Lots of people take up running to lose a few pounds. To burn calories. Running and burning calories go together like a horse and carriage.

Or do they?

Most people are disappointed with the amount of running calories per mile they burn. Let's say you have a nice Big Mac. In order to burn those calories you have to run for an hour. Because a Big Mac is about 500 running calories.

Fact: in order to lose 2 lbs you have to burn, give or take 7.000 calories. That's more than 25 hours of walking!

Running calories per mile: influencing factors

• The number of running calories per mile you burn is influenced by several things.
• Your weight. The more weight you carry with you, the more running calories per mile you'll burn.
• Your stamina. The worse shape you are in, the more calories you'll burn. Which just goes to show: there's a silver lining everywhere.
• How much effort you put into your running calories per mile. The faster you run, the more calories you'll burn.
• Do you do long runs? Or tempo runs? The way you run affects the number of running calories per mile.

The answer to your question: running calories per mile

But let's skip to the good stuff.

You want to know how many running calories per mile you're going through right?! 

Luckily there are several free tools available to check you running calories per mile.

Online calculators of running calories per mile

• CalorieBurnCalculator: you have to put in your age, gender, height and how many minutes you've run.
• Runner's World calculator
• My Fitness Pal: I don't think this one is very accurate. I tried it, but it told me I had spend way more running calories per mile then I think I did.
• Running Calorie Burn Calculator: this one requires you to know your resting heart rate. And you have to know how many miles you ran.

Tables and lists

If you're not into calculating, you can also use a table or list. There are several lists that tell you have many calories you burn with an activity.

• Nutristrategy table: look up running, and how much you weight, and find the number of calories you'll burn.
• Harvard Health publication: same as the previous table. This table uses your weight to tell you have many calories you'll burn.

Heart rate monitor

These online calculators and tables are not as specific as a heart monitor can be. So if you really want to know the number of running calories per mile you burn, use a heart monitor. Before you start running you have to fill in your gender, age and weight. And then your heart monitor will do what its name promises: it will monitor your calories. I use mine even when I'm pulling up weeds. It makes gardening much more bearable knowing I'm buring 250 calories while I'm suffering.

Summing up: running calories per mile

Lots of people start to run because they want to lose weight. To burn those calories.And they will, but usually not as many as they had hoped for. It's important you know this. So you won't get discouraged. Running and burning calories is a great combination.

 If you want to burn more calories add some strength training to your routine. Muscles burn calories!

Don't miss any of my posts! Get yourself a free subscription, and you'll never have to worry about missing out!

Enter your email address:


Delivered by FeedBurner