What burns more incline or speed?

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Erinslove
Erinslove Posts: 139
in Fitness and Exercise
The treadmill at my gym doesn't tell me how many calories per hour I am burning. I usually switch it up a lot constantly changing inclines and walking/jogging/sprinting.

What I am curious to know is what gives you the most bang for your buck? I have a very hard time jogging on much of an incline and sprinting I pretty much do on flat.

Do you burn more calories walking on a high incline? Or jogging while on flat or very low incline?
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Replies

  • Erinslove
    Erinslove Posts: 139
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    Would love a personal trainer or someone with knowledge about this to answer!
  • Erinslove
    Erinslove Posts: 139
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    I am going to bump this one more time to try and get an answer. Then I will let it go. :-)
  • cjaharmon
    cjaharmon Posts: 46 Member
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    I don't have any specific information about this but I know my treadmill counts calories and it jumps up a lot more when I do an incline then when I walk flat.
  • adonnelly13
    adonnelly13 Posts: 24 Member
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    i'm not a trainer, and i'm not sure of a positive answer for this, but from my personal experience, i burn about the same. typically i do about a four mile run on the tredmill on a flat surface around a 6.2 speed, or, I walk for a little more the 3 miles at an incline at about a 4.2 speed.
  • Bookers23
    Bookers23 Posts: 187 Member
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    as a general rule of thumb, i believe you burn the same amount of calories over any given distance whether it be running or walking. I use a HRM and burn far more calories walking at a brisk pace on incline than running flat. my typical setup is 4.4mph at max incline. that is a huge number for me. i also love turning the treadmill off and using my own power to walk. that is a killer workout. gets the legs going.
  • codycaca1
    codycaca1 Posts: 35 Member
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    I think they can both equally burn a good amount of calories..
    In my opinion its all about your heart rate and how hard you are pushing yourself. Such as if you get your heart rate up to about 80% doing either running or walking on an incline you will typically burn the same amount calories.
  • Schmarrn
    Schmarrn Posts: 22
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    you need a HRM so youll know more precisely how much you are burning
  • mmarin81
    mmarin81 Posts: 241
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    You burn the same whether walking at high incline or sprinting flat. Switching it up is good to keep it interesting though so you dont get burnt out by doing the same thing day after day.
  • tanmommie46
    tanmommie46 Posts: 4
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    In my experience, its the incline.
  • monicalynne68
    monicalynne68 Posts: 87 Member
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    Check your heartrate. The higher the heart rate, the more calories you are burning. Usually the more resistance i.e. incline the higher your heart rate, the more calories burned. Just make sure you are achieving your target heart rate. Here's a great blog post to help you find your target heart rate

    http://fitprolaura.blogspot.com/2012/01/calculating-your-target-heart-rate.html?spref=fb
  • lewandt
    lewandt Posts: 566
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    You definitely burn more with a high incline. I do a interval incline on a really high level for 30 minutes if i don't feel like running but need a high calorie burn.
  • IronSmasher
    IronSmasher Posts: 3,908 Member
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    http://m.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-242-304-311-8402-0,00.html

    It doesn't answer your question, but it's still interesting.

    I agree with the get a HRM comment. Everyone is just guessing.
  • Newf77
    Newf77 Posts: 802 Member
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    Not a PT however I have been advised that resistance {incline} will increase the caloric burn.
  • BettyBoop1114
    BettyBoop1114 Posts: 4
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    I work with Marines and I have been told by many and experienced for myself that incline burns more. I normally burn 300 calories, according to the the treadmil, in 15 minutes with an incline of 13 and speed of 3.3mph
  • katiej122
    katiej122 Posts: 125 Member
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    Definitely different for everyone but from my experience, I burn a fairly similar number of calories ( I wear a HRM, which is a godsend!) power walking on an incline and jogging on flat ground. The only difference is, when I'm powerwalking I can go for much longer, so I end up burning more calories in the long run :)
  • zorbaru
    zorbaru Posts: 1,077 Member
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    its not about the incline or the speed, its about the energy expended. if you find running on flat easier than walking at incline, chances are you will burn more walking on incline.

    or, what the guy before me said.
  • madeinforks
    madeinforks Posts: 50 Member
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    Most definitely the incline!!!! It burns much faster than walking a fast pace or running..I put mine at 4mph and a 10 incline and burn 600 calories in a 50 min session..often I bump it up to 15 for a minute here and there just to get things working harder on the calorie end..
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    What burns more is whatever gets the heart rate up for the period of time you wanted to use.

    If jogging jars you so badly that you had 60 min but could only go 30, then incline would have been better.

    If incline causes your calf's to cramp up and you stop at 30, then jogging would have been better.

    Usually incline is easier to nail a certain HR that you desire, because you can adjust it down lower as HR starts to climb above it.
    With jogging, usually a little harder, you may end backing off speed to walking pace in the end because it was so stressful on your body.
  • beckylawrence70
    beckylawrence70 Posts: 752 Member
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    I just did both ways this past week and burned about the same, although I didn't go as far in regards to miles........
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    Most definitely the incline!!!! It burns much faster than walking a fast pace or running..I put mine at 4mph and a 10 incline and burn 600 calories in a 50 min session..often I bump it up to 15 for a minute here and there just to get things working harder on the calorie end..

    Holy Cow!

    One of my friends on here always does incline walks, and I tried it once when coming out of a sickness, and wanted to keep HR in recovery zone.

    I did 60 min starting at like 8%, at 40 min had to start backing it down, ended at about 5% grade.

    And calf's still burned.

    That's incredible at 10-15%.

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