Diminishing returns from jogging?

msarro

I just started the whole couch25k thing and I've noticed something... it seems that my calories burnt with each trip out this week have gone down by about 20 with each session. Monday morning I burnt 410. This morning I burnt 388. When rapping up this evening, I'd burnt 366 despite a more hilly course.

Now I'm assuming this means that my muscles are starting to get used to aerobic activity and the exercise itself, however that seems awful fast. Any ideas??

msarro

I just started the whole couch25k thing and I've noticed something... it seems that my calories burnt with each trip out this week have gone down by about 20 with each session. Monday morning I burnt 410. This morning I burnt 388. When rapping up this evening, I'd burnt 366 despite a more hilly course.

Now I'm assuming this means that my muscles are starting to get used to aerobic activity and the exercise itself, however that seems awful fast. Any ideas??

GIBride01

Kinda sucks doesn't it? In a good way...I go to a 1 x week cardio pump / step aerobics class. When I first started 20+ pounds ago in mid January, I burned 1400 calories per my HRM. Yesterday..950. The class is still tough, but I am not completely dead at the end. You are probably just more conditioned than you are giving yourself credit for and your body is adjusting to the exercise. I know when I walk, my calories burned are always different, despite doing a similar course. The only thing that has brought my calorie burn back up is bumping up the intensity. So maybe just run a bit longer, more hills, go faster....that is what has helped me keep the calorie burn high. Hope that helps!

Dave198lbs

I wouldnt reach any conclusions from such a small data base. three days aint jack.

Plus every single conditon would have to be the exact same...

body water (changes hourly constantly)

temperature

your energy

three days? no

give it three weeks and average it

msarro

Kinda figured, lol. Just seemed interesting to me that there was such a drastic downward trend. C'est la vie!

juanitagf

There are several aspects that could change the number of calories burned. Each mile traveled--walking, jogging, running--will burn approximately 100 calories. If you run slower, you cover less distance in the time allotment so you burn fewer calories. Also, as you lose weight, the activity will burn fewer calories as it take less energy to exercise. As for the hillier course, you probably moved slower and therefore covered less ground. Are you tracking the calories burned by a HRM or just by the exercise database in MFP? The HRM will be more accurate. I have found that the MFP exercise database seldom gives me the correct calorie count.

I did the C25K and it worked really well. I just finished a half marathon in under 2 hours. I find the 100 cal/mile is a to what I do. Though I do burn more calories on hard runs versus easy runs. Hang in there! It really will make a difference!