There are several treadmill incline benefits, but the best of all is burning more calories!

A while back, I read an interesting statistic that increasing the incline on your treadmill by 2% will burn 25% more calories.  Today, I put that to the test in a controlled experiment. 

At my usual pace of 3.3 MPH, I walked for 20 minutes (1.09 miles) with no incline. The treadmill console displayed 115 calories burned and 36.2 fat calories burned.

I reset the treadmill and walked another 20 minutes at 3.3 MPH, but with an incline of 3%.  This time it said I burned 143 calories and 44.9 fat calories.

(143 - 115) / 115 = .2435

(44.9-36.2) / 36.2 = .2403

Pretty darn close to 25%!  (Assuming of course that the treadmill programming is realistic.)

The extra calories burned during a 20 minute workout isn’t much, but add that up over a longer workout several times a week, and it really starts to make a difference. 

So the next time you are on your treadmill, kick up the incline 2% and burn those extra calories.

OK… This has been bothering me! 

What the heck does the “caloried burned” display on my treadmill actually mean?   Is it a base minimum?  Is it an average?  Is it just a guideline? 

For example, I have a friend who reported she walked/jogged for 15 minutes and went 1.25 miles.  In her own words, she “walks faster than most people can run”.  She can walk at 4.5 to 5.0 MPH.  For me, that would definitely be a jog.  Her legs are much longer than mine.

So, does she actually burn more calories than me just because her legs are longer and she can cover more ground in less time?  I hardly think so. 

Does someone who is in good physical shape walking at 4.0 MPH burn more calories than an out of shape person struggling to maintain a speed of 3.0 MPH?  That doesn’t make any sense to me!

Unless there is a permanent heart rate monitor attached to someone, how can a machine’s programming (or even a chart on paper for that matter) determine how many calories someone burns during their workout?

Silly as it may sound, I feel gypped!  I’m working very hard and the numbers on my treadmill just don’t demonstrate my effort.  Perhaps I’m a little jealous of my long-legged friend who actually has enough endurance to jog for five minutes, let alone 15.  (I’ve never been able to jog more than a quarter of a mile, even in my best shape.)

I guess I should just ignore that darn number and be grateful that I am losing weight and getting in shape.  But sometimes, you’ve just gotta vent!