Caloric Burn When Running

The number your watch gives you is wrong. You could wear three different brands of running watches and get three different calorie burn numbers. If you’re over 6 feet tall, the watch thinks running 1 mile is equivalent to summiting Everest. Small changes in the weight you plug into your app also affect the caloric burn your watch gives you.

Simply put, assume the number on your watch is always wrong in the worst kind of way—it’s inconsistently wrong. It can overshoot your calories just as well as it can undershoot them.

This is a big reason why many new runners actually don’t lose as much weight as they think they will at first—if any at all.

The caloric burn of running is lower than you think, and the more you run, the more efficient you get at running, and therefore burn less calories.

As an amateur runner, it is really hard to under-eat and lose *too much* weight. Your body would simply break down before you got to the drop off of diminishing returns. The reason you see high-level skinny-runner body types is that they have been running their whole lives. They have the muscular and aerobic systems to be able to push themselves to the edge of not eating enough/eating just enough with less injury consequences (adapted bodies).

Regardless if you start running to get in cardiovascular shape, generally lose weight, or to compete and be a solid amateur runner (qualify for races), you probably won’t run across an issue where you lose too much weight. You will just find yourself eating back into caloric stability, whereas the elite runner’s body allows them to put out efforts so massive that they simply cannot eat the calories back in time until it’s time for the next run—the cycle of glycogen depletion continues.

While you still lose/”shed” excess fat on your running journey, the idea that you’re going to melt away to nothing is largely a myth. You may even feel stronger than before, having more muscular endurance when in the gym. You’ll certainly look the part as well, as the fat loss from running will simply accentuates your muscles (not melt them).

Initial Changes

It may sound weird, but your cardiovascular fitness will outpace your body, by a wide margin. You may look like you did 30 days ago still, but your fitness will have increased significantly.

Any weight changes in the early period of running will mostly be do to water weight. You may even slightly gain weight initially, as your body goes into “defense” against your new running regimen—retaining water from inflammation and glycogen storage. This is only a temporary effect, but it will seem like running is “doing nothing for you” at the moment.

Think of this period as “getting fit—to get fit”.

Carbs vs Fats

Part of the process to get fit…to get fit, is to understand what you’re burning and what you’re intaking, and not just from a caloric standpoint!

This is because new runners aren’t well adapted from an aerobic and fat burning standpoint. When they run, they start burning more carbs the average runner much more early and often. Couple this with cardiac drift occurring early in new runners equals a runner who burns mainly carbs!

As you can see, your pace stays the same, but your HR “drifts” (increases) as the run continues. This phenomenon is known as cardiac drift. The more fit you are, and better runner, the less this affects you.

As your heart rate increases, the more carbs you burn.

Simply put, the less fit you are, the more your HR drifts early on in your run
(picture #1), and the more carbs you burn (picture 2).

As premise, this is fine and will sort itself out as you get more fit and your body adapts, boosting your running economy. But early on in your running journey, understanding that you are burning more carbs than fats is paramount. Even if you’re a natural skinny person, your body isn’t burning majority of fat while running yet.

How this relates to your diet is that many people *think* they’re burning more fats than carbs, and plan their diet accordingly. Either without knowing it, or via specifically tracking your macros and deliberately adding higher fat, new runners see a stagnation in weight loss because of this.

Now this may be a good thing or a bad thing. Some enjoy their current figure, and that’s okay. Many enjoy holding onto their weight for purposes such as weight lifting, manual labor, or generally holding onto size.

Others are in it to lose weight, this is good too. If you are in this camp, I actually propose running a higher carb + protein diet, and limiting fat intake when you can. This may sound backwards, but when are in fat burning low-aerobic zones, it will force your body to burn what’s left of your fat stores. From this, you will find yourself leaning out. Once you drop the extra weight and visceral fat, you can then add back in higher fat intake as your body will be better suited to remain in low-aerobic fat burning zones while running. This is when you can teach your body how to burn fat more efficiently.

Bottom Line

Seeing no decrease in your weight from running can be either a good or bad thing.

If it’s a *good* thing, you successfully beat a psyop that has stopped million of athletes from running! You’ve run more miles than you previously thought was possible, while retaining your strength and general size.

The way forward is tricky though, as if you want to pursue amateur goals as a distance runner, say a Boston Qualifier, a slightly smaller build will aid you in running the marathon distance fast. Simple as. If your goal is general cardiovascular health + lean muscle, you’re in a good spot to remain, I advise this approach as well.

If not losing weight is a *bad* thing, there are some tricky times ahead. Chiefly, dropping your caloric intake at a safe rate for your body to shed the weight as naturally as possible. What we’re trying to avoid with distance running is hormonal imbalances. For women, this is especially a concern. Men should be cautious as well.

This means never running 60 minutes or longer in a fasted state. We want to fuel your workouts still, along with recovery efforts post run, but outside of that is when the caloric intake can be cut. Unlike in a normal diet, where you aren’t very active and a simply cutting calories, running will make you very hungry. It’s a two front battle of diet + exercise to get your weight down, while also trying to remain healthy. A slow approach is always best in these cases, drastic changes inside of a month or two should not occur.

Get your cardiovascular fitness up, then get your muscular system in a place to handle what your physiologically able to output, then lose excess fat, then get in the best running shape possible for yourself.