Although somebody doing his road work cross-country is technically running, common usage often draws a difference between the two. Running often returns to speed workouts like sprinting, while longer distance workouts are called jogging. When it comes to losing weight, either will work. A choice between them will boil down to how well either event works with your abilities and preferences.
Cross-Country Basics
A cross-country run means doing your road work for a period of at least 40 uninterrupted minutes. You can stop to walk, but should keep your sweat pouring and heart rate elevated throughout the workout. Many people who run cross-country are concerned more with the distance they cover than the speed at which they cover it.
Running Basics
Running, in this context, refers to sprint workouts -- distances of less than 400 meters at once. A single sprint won't be effective from a weight-loss standpoint, so runners will perform workouts of several sprints with a rest period in between. Typical sprinting workouts will last between 20 and 60 minutes, with about a third to a half of that time spent actually running.
Considerations
Health information resource website HealthStatus provides calorie burn information for various activities, including running at various speeds. The primary considerations for how many calories a workout burns include how fast you run, how long your workout is and your body weight.
Example
Assume a 160-lb. person performing two 40-minute running workouts. For one workout, he runs the entire time at a 10-minute mile jogging pace. For the other, he performs fast sprints for 20 minutes, resting in between for the other half of the workout. According to HealthStatus his jogging workout would have burned about 490 calories. The faster running would burn about 540.
Afterburn
Exercise of any sort causes microscopic tears in your body tissues, and depletes your stores of vital hormones and other chemicals. For a period after your workout, your body will burn more calories than usual as it replenishes stores and repairs your tissue. The brief, intense workout of runners and the slow, long workout of cross country both result in similar afterburns, with differences depending more on the length and intensity of the workout than on the type.
Bottom Line
The calories you burn running vs. cross-country are fairly similar. In many cases the difference is smaller than the margin for error of measurement. As with many other weight-loss plans, the exact exercise you choose is less important than your ability to commit to performing the workouts regularly.
References
- "The Four-Hour Body"; Tim Ferriss; 2011
- Health Status: The Most Accurate Calorie Calculator
- "Capoeira Conditioning"; Gerard Taylor; 2005
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