Originally posted by heteropedro
I'm 14 and I have been running for a few weeks. I run almost every day for 30mins. I realized that each time I run it keeps getting easier than compared to the first. I can run longer and I guess my stamina and endurance grow. I wanted to know if Im still losing the same amount of calories as when I first started to run. Im by no means to where I want to be yet...
I am glad that you enjoy running almost daily. The GMC recommendeds thats the average person should perform approx. 30 minutes of moderate to intense physical activity each day for 6 days a week to promote health and well being.
The amount of calories that you burn depends on: how long you run for; the surface that you are running on, the gradient (angle) of the surface (uphill/ downhill), and how fast you are running. Obviously, if all variables are the roughly the same then so are calories "burned".
When regularly performing muscular endurance/ "stamina" work, your muscles undergo a number of physiological changes so that they can adapt and become more efficient at the task. The number of capillaries (small blood vessels) and mitochondria (organelles/ components of a cell where ATP is produced for energy) surrounding the muscles increase in number. This allows for greater endurance, improved resistence to fatigue, and overall better muscle (cell) metabolism. Individual muscle fibres also contain more myoglobin which also improves the aerobic ability of the muscle.
Keep up the hard work, and give some thought to increasing the length of time for each run.
- B.A.
