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How do runners choose the speed at which to run? Stanford researchers answered this question using wearable data from thousands of recreational runners. The researchers showed that a runner’s preferred speed is actually the most energetically efficient or burns the least calories per unit distance traveled.

This finding changes our decades-old theory that humans burn the same amount of energy no matter how fast they run. Discoveries like this help us to understand human physiology and its evolution, as well as improve training and human performance.

Read the full scientific article in Current Biology

Read press release from Stanford

See coverage in Science News, The Wall Street Journal, Popular Science, and NewScientist