Straight Answers to Your (Calorie) Burning Questions

Q: What burns more calories per hour, swimming or running?

A: When you talk about which activities burn more or fewer calories, there are two “whys” that need to be answered before anyone can provide a meaningful answer.

The first is why you’re asking. What’s the information going to do for you? If your objective is weight loss, which is the reason most people would ask a question like this, then it’s important to frame the question with a prequalifying statement.

So here it is – no matter how many calories you burn doing a given exercise, you still have to address your eating habits if you want to lose weight. Burning lots of calories can definitely help but it’s pretty easy to increase your consumption to accommodate that additional burn. The fact is that most people who trim a significant amount of body fat through lots of hours of exercise almost always improve the quality of their nutritional intake – nutrients per calorie ratio – as well. They have to if they want to sustain their program frequency, duration and intensity combination.

But let’s assume you’re doing that and still want to figure out which activity is going to give you a bigger bang for your buck when you’re engaged in it. Here’s where the second “why” comes in.

Why would you do either activity? Do you prefer the open road or the lap lanes? Is your body better suited for running or for swimming? Are you more likely to stick with one over a longer period or to do more extended workouts versus short ones with one activity or the other? Are you working around a knee injury or shin splints when you run or is a nagging rotator cuff pain your companion in the pool? These are all points to consider under the “Why would I do this versus that?” umbrella.

And they’re all important considerations to mull over before getting to which one burns more calories.

Let’s say that you’ve worked through all that and the simple truth is that either one will work for you, you have no preference or body-related considerations that make one the obvious choice, and finally, you’re just as likely to do one for more hours a week as the other.

Now, what’s the answer?

The one you’ll do the hardest.

All things being equal, and they rarely are, intensity is usually the deciding variable in the equation. The three exercise effectiveness variables are duration, frequency and intensity of workouts. Most have set schedule restrictions in terms of the accumulated time they can devote to a fitness program, and that’s always a product of "duration times frequency." Three one-hour sessions a week and six half-hour sessions still yield the same total exercise volume. So intensity becomes the variable that is stepped up to achieve higher fitness goals.

And that’s your answer – what will burn the most calories for you is what suits you best and what you’ll be most likely to do harder and for longer, both during the individual workouts and over the long haul.

So go do it!

Want more useful information on how to eat well and get in shape? Contact Dan at http://trivalleywellness.com.