Barefoot Running vs. Shoes – Which Burns More Calories?

 If you were to wear your favorite pair of running shoes and run for 6 minutes at 6 minutes per mile, and then repeat the same course the next day using “barefoot” shoes at the same pace, which would burn more calories?  When a group of 10 recreational runners, 5 males and 5 females were asked to run at a 70%VO2max pace, heart rate and rating of perceived exertion were higher wearing regular shoes.  While the difference between barefoot vs. shoes was only 2% on a treadmill, when tested on ground, to run the same pace VO2max was 5.7% higher with shoes.  What does this mean?  If you want to use less effort and win a race, go barefoot.  For the calorie burn, work harder and wear shoes.   Think about it: would you ride a mountain bike during a road race?

One Response

Comment