Impact of cardio-exercise duration on burned calories
I've used a calorie calculator some time ago that had two different options for running.
Running
Running (less than 10 minutes)
I can only guess wildly. Maybe because the body burns energy stored in the muscles first and after a certain amount of time the body starts to refill them, which increases the energy needed.
Are there differences in the way the body burns calories after a specific amount of time?
Or asked in another way: Is there a difference between running for 3x10 minutes with pauses in between or running 30 minutes in one go (assuming all other conditions, pace, total distance, etc, the same).
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I believe that the calculator was probably referring to running < 10 minute miles or similar, rather than less than 10 minutes.
Running at a given pace will have the same caloric burn, no matter how you slice it up. If you run for 30 minutes at 7 miles an hour in one shot, you will burn the same amount of calories as if you ran 3 10 minute segments at 7 miles per hour.
Where it might make a difference is in your own personal fitness. If you cannot run 30 minutes straight at a given pace, but you could run at that pace for 3 smaller segments of time, then you can get the increased calorie burn from the higher pace. This is one of the theories that HIIT is founded on.
But overall, the amount of time spent at a given intensity will result in basically the same calorie expenditure despite how it is apportioned.
As long as your total duration is the same, the outcome, whether it is increases in aerobic fitness or caloric expenditure, should not matter. Both ACSM and USDHHS recommend 150 minutes of aerobic activity per week divided into bouts of at least 10 minutes. (running is vigorous activity, so USDHHS says you can get away with 75minutes/wk and ACSM says 20min 3x/wk)
Additional info, as long as you are running, you can run the same distance with any speed and burn almost the same number of calories. Same with walking. (but running burns more calories than walking per unit of distance) However, keep in mind that aerobic fitness is more important for your health than calories/body fat%, so the faster you can run, the better (because increases in aerobic fitness is highly related to your activity intensity).
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