In-run calorie consumption

Now this came as a surprise to me. I've always pretty dismissed the value of the calories consumed during exercise, as it always seems negligible really compared to your intake. If you want to lose weight then trying to do so simply by burning it off is never going to work, it simply takes too much effort. If to burn of the calories from a piece of cheese on toast or a burger takes a 10k run then you'd be out hitting the tarmac all day - much better to eat sensibly in the first place.

However, having finally got injury free and just done a few 20k-plus runs, I've checked out my Garmin and found that they burn around 1,600 calories, which is significant. OK, it's maybe a bit extreme and I'd never recommend running 20k with a primary reason of burning calories but it is a welcome side benefit.

Here's the data from a few recent runs -

16k 1,140 cal

13k 820 cal

8k 503 cal

14k 894 cal

7k 483 cal

22k 1,349 cal

21k 1,305 cal

24k 1,640 cal

Calories burned during 24k run