Burning calories is a bankrupt concept. And paying attention to how many calories you burn is as utterly bankrupt as trying to eat healthy by counting calories.
In the CBS piece about our barefoot running event, they suggested that a benefit of barefoot running is that it burns more calories. Not only does this miss the entire point of natural running (a healthier stride, less injury), but it is factually wrong. Research by Dan Lieberman up at Harvard (and others) have shown that barefoot running is more efficient -- i.e., you expend less energy for a given distance. This is because, in part, you actually use your arch to store your momentum and release it in your next stride. So if you run properly, the end result will be to burn fewer calories, not more. And that's a good thing.
This is true for other movements too, not just running. For any given exercise, you should seek to expend as few calories as possible. Don't get me wrong, you want some big workouts where you burn through a bunch of calories. That's why I say "for any given exercise". But for that specific workout, you should seek to accomplish it as efficiently as possible. That means good form. No wasted movement.
Good form allows you to do more with less. Athletes understand this. Good form allows you to:
- hit a golf ball further and more accurately with the same or fewer calories
- hit a baseball out of the park with the same or fewer calories
- throw a football further and harder with the same or fewer calories
Or say that you're in the wild on a persistence hunt. You don't know how long the hunt will last -- 2 miles, 5 miles, 10 miles. If you're successful, you'll have more work ahead of you to butcher the animal and possibly carry it some distance. If you're not successful, then you still have some work ahead of you. Due to the uncertainty of life in the wild, you want to accomplish your objectives while conserving as much energy as possible, husbanding your resources, and being more efficient. For a given objective, you want to burn as few calories as possible.
So the next time you hear someone say that an activity is a great way to burn calories, alarm bells should go off. Remember that whenever there is an external goal -- like in sports or life in the wild -- there is a desire to expend fewer calories for a given motion.
It's not about counting calories. It's about moving and exercising in the right ways. It's about eating the right kinds of foods. It's quality, not quantity.
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