That the act of running burns a lot of calories---about 100 to 120 per mile, with heavier people somewhat above this total and lighter people below it---is no secret. In fact, running burns more calories per unit time than any other form of exercise. But many people wonder whether running can actually help the body burn more calories even after the cessation of exercise.
Considerations
People who exercise primarily to control or lose weight rather than to prepare for athletic competition or reap cardiovascular benefits aim to maximize the number of calories they burn. To do this, they seek out activities that have been demonstrated to not only consume a lot of calories during exercise, but after it as well. Running fulfills this criterion through a phenomenon known as excess post oxygen consumption, or EPOC.
Benefits
A common refrain in the fitness community is that the best way to increase calories burned at rest is strength training, which increases lean muscle mass and therefore increases basal metabolic rate, or BMR. However, as Runner's World reports, this increase is small, and the EPOC associated with running combined with running's higher rate of calorie consumption during exercise itself give running a clear advantage when it comes to trimming unwanted weight.
Effects
According to Peak Performance, EPOC includes two distinct phases, the first and more significant occurring in the hours following a run and the second lasting for up to two days afterward. Its sources of energy consumption include metabolizing lactic acid, replenishing glycogen stores, and rebuilding the microtears in muscle that result from intense exercise.
Misconceptions
Everyone has a unique BMR, which is the number of calories burned per hour at rest owing to "background" activity such as heartbeat, respiration and various cellular processes. While people are often told that running is an effective way to increase BMR, this is not the case. As the Better Health Channel reports, increasing lean muscle mass does significantly raise BMR, but this is typically neither a goal of people with a desire to lose weight nor an effect of running itself.
Conclusions
While running does not significantly increase metabolic rate at rest per se, its high rate of calorie consumption combined with EPOC-related effects occurring in the immediate and extended aftermath of a workout make it an ideal means of losing weight and keeping it off. For this reason, runners aiming chiefly for weight loss should consider distributing their weekly miles over as many days as possible rather than compress the same number of miles into three or four days per week.
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