The intensity of your runs, what you are eating, and when can all impact the amount of fat that you burn during a run. The type of run you are doing, along with speed and body mass, all have an impact on how much calories you burn in a given amount of time, according to experts from Harvard. That is because if you consistently run the same distance and pace, your body will adjust, and eventually, you will burn less calories. You actually burn more fat walking or jogging slowly, instead of running faster.
If weight loss is your goal, then aerobic exercises (walking or running) burn a statistically significantly higher amount of fat. If you are running to lose weight, then in addition to burning fat, you also want to burn calories, and high-intensity training helps running burn more calories. When you start running, not only are you burning calories, but you are building muscle, which carries weight better than the fat you are burning. Generally speaking, the heavier and faster you run, the more calories you burn.
Burning calories depends, in large part, on how much you weigh and how fast you run. In other words, you will burn through a higher percentage of fat compared to carbohydrates, but the overall fat burned may be lower than a higher-intensity run, since your total calories burned are lower. While both types effectively burn calories, the total number of calories lost through fat depends on which run you choose. A slower, lower-intensity run uses more fat as fuel, but takes longer to burn large numbers of calories overall.
Moderate-intensity runs will let you burn a higher percentage of fat, and you can sustain that kind of training over an extended period, but if you are crunched for time and have to run for shorter periods, a higher-intensity session will burn more energy, resulting in a larger caloric deficit. One of the biggest problems with simply running at a steady, moderate-intensity pace is that the calories burned are limited by how long you sweat. To burn more fat and calories, you are going to need to change your running routine up a bit and include a few new exercises — be they longer distances and slower speeds, or interval workouts.
While you can get by on a caloric deficit through exercising alone, running with high intensity routines puts your body under much more stress and increases your risk for unwanted injuries. Doing a vigorous workout will not only help you burn calories more quickly than running slowly, it can boost your metabolism — meaning that your body will keep burning fat well after you stop running. Studies have shown the post-burn effects from running at a high intensity for short periods significantly helps in long-term weight loss.
This is most likely due to high-intensity workouts creating strong afterburn effects, where the body continues burning calories even after the runs are over. The body needs more energy for recovery, so it burns even more calories. This is because in the brief duration of a race, the body will be using fat as the main energy source, instead of relying on carbohydrates, which plays more of a role when exercise intensity increases. Plus, you may reap benefits in terms of fat loss, even after you have finished running, because your body continues burning fat for 2-3 hours after finishing your run.
Barring complications, in order to lose one pound of body fat, you need to burn approximately 3,500 calories more than you consume. In theory, running for 20 minutes per day could help you shed body fat, though you will not be able to pick and choose which body parts to shed fat first. By making targeted changes to your diet, and getting the recommended 150 to 300 minutes of exercise per week from the World Health Organization for adults, you can help your body burn fat while running. High-intensity interval workouts done at 80% or higher of normal heart rate can help you burn up to 29% more fat than low-intensity, longer runs, according to a meta-analysis published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
A mix of high-intensity interval running, stable-state resistance running, and weight training not only will maximize fat burning, it can also help you avoid injuries (another major concern with high-impact exercises such as running). Faster interval runs will help torch more fat, but the increased intensity that makes them so effective also means that you should not be doing them every day. Once your body gets used to running 30-minute runs, you can work up to running for 60 minutes, or doing less walking during the run, and then increase it to 90 minutes if you are looking to build a longer run. Even if you normally do longer distances, including an occasional 30-minute run in your regular workout routine may benefit your body far better over the long haul.
Studies all over the map suggest running for as little as 15-30 minutes can jumpstart your metabolism and burn serious body fat, both while and after you do the actual exercise. Just 10 minutes of aerobic exercise releases large amounts of mood-boosting endorphins, which are responsible for the runners high, so a quick lunchtime jog could leave you feeling just as good as a longer run. In the case of running, not only does running feel easier if done repetitively, session after session (even if you are still sweating and kicking your legs), your metabolism also learns and responds, so that you burn fewer calories from the same exercise output. Running burns more calories than swimming, biking, or weight training, according to the American Council on Exercise.
In general, aerobic activities such as Nordic walking, running, or cycling burn the most fat. On one hand, you are in an ideal fat-burning zone while running slowly. To ensure the burning happens, you need to be eating foods that will power your runs. If you are eating a reasonable amount of calories and adding jogging or running for 20 minutes per day, you will still lose weight and trim the stomach, you will just need more time to see results.
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