I used to stop running on the treadmill when the Calories Burned calculator told me some arbitrary number I figured was "good enough" - even though I knew that they are pretty inaccurate. ​ Did I run longer than before? Did it feel any easier than last week? These questions didn't even register in my thinking. The most important thing for me was to burn off the calories, which I hoped would help me lose weight. ​ This is a kind of punishing aerobic exercise. "Doing time" in order to burn fat. ​ Today, I focus on "putting in time", in order to be able to run farther, more easily, or more quickly. I don't even notice what the Calorie Calculator number says on the treadmill. I'm watching my pace and making sure that I'm hitting my goals for the workout. And I believe that ignoring the Calorie number is much more important for my physical and emotional health than whatever the time and distance and speed numbers say.
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