How To Burn 300 Calories In 30 Minutes On A Treadmill

To burn 300 calories in 30 minutes on a treadmill, you will have to run at a medium to fast pace of around 7 miles per hour (11.5 km/h). So aim to run about 3 and a half miles or 5 and a half kilometers in 30 minutes on a 0.5% incline.

Several variables determine how many calories a person burns while exercising. These include your weight, gender, speed of exercise, and metabolic rate.

In this article, I’ll explain why burning 300 calories in 30 minutes is a good goal.

I’ll then lay out two different treadmill cardio workouts that will allow anyone to burn 300 calories in a half-hour.

I’ll also provide tips on how to maximize your treadmill calories burned.

Why Burn 300 Calories in 30 Minutes?

A calorie is a unit of energy. It represents the amount of energy required to raise the temperature of one kilogram of water by one-degree celsius.

Calories allow us to quantify, or put a number to, the amount of energy that we get from food. As it is digested, food releases heat energy. The greater the calorie count of the food, the greater the energy released during digestion. When you take in more calories than you need, the excess will be stored in your body as fat.

You can do two things to get rid of the extra calories stored in your body. You can eat less, and you can exercise. The best way to lose weight is to combine the two methods.

Drastic calorie reduction is not a good idea. That’s because it can lead to a starvation response. This is when the body thinks an emergency situation has occurred and slows down the metabolism and might result in a weight gain in place of losing weight! So, even though you eat less, you won’t lose the fat you want.

You will get better results when you combine moderate calorie reduction of 300-500 calories per day with moderate calorie-burning exercise.

Doing a 30-minute, 300-calorie-burning exercise session each day is a sustainable goal.

Check out the best treadmill to buy for max calories burned.

How Calorie Burn Varies

We can estimate how many calories running burns using calculators and how much weight we may lose burning calories like this. Your personal trainer might adjust things a little.

However, it is impossible to state exactly how many calories a person will burn with a certain treadmill workout. That’s because some variables affect how we burn calories.

The two most important are:

• Gender
• Weight

These two factors are related.

Men burn about 8 percent more calories than women because they weigh more. It takes more energy to move a larger body than a smaller one. So, heavier people will burn more calories. Here’s a chart that compares the calories burned on a treadmill at different weights and genders.

30- Minute Calorie Burn Based on Running at 4.0 Miles Per Hour:

Proper Treadmill Running Form

Before we get into the workouts, here’s a quick overview of proper treadmill running form:

• When you stand on the treadmill, assume an athletic stance. Your feet should be hip-width apart, your toes pointing forward, core engaged, and spine neutral.
• Avoid the tendency to look down at your feet or at the dashboard. Keep your head up and your chin forward. This will help to maintain an upright position and keep your back from hunching over.
• Don’t hold the handrails. Holding the rails leads to an unnatural body position that could result in injury.
• Pump your arms. They should be bent at 90-degrees so that they swing naturally with each stride. Using your arms also activates the core. Plus, you’ll burn more calories when you pump your arms.
• Strike the running mat with the ball of your foot. Run with natural form as if you were outdoors.
• Don’t lean forward.
• Run in the middle of the running belt. You should be about a foot back from the treadmill console.
• Breathe naturally, relax and enjoy the journey.

Before using your treadmill, check that all the parts are properly tightened.

Treadmill Workouts to Burn 300 Calories in 30 Minutes

From the chart above, we can see that a steady pace of four miles per hour will not burn 300 calories in 30 minutes. Even the heaviest male will only burn 190 calories in half an hour at that pace.

To increase the calories burned, you need to increase the intensity of the workout. Here are two ways to do just that.

Each workout allows a 125 lb female to burn 300 calories in 30 minutes. So, a 230-pound male can expect to burn around 400 calories.

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Workout One: Medium Intensity Steady State Training

Steady-State Training involves maintaining the same workout pace throughout the entire workout. You should begin with a warm-up to gradually build up to your maintenance pace.

I also recommend tapering down at the end of the workout to help your body return to its pre-exercise state.

Remember that this workout allows a 125-pound woman to burn 300 calories in thirty minutes. To achieve that goal, you should maintain a pace of 7.0 miles per hour.

A 230-pound man will only have to run 6.0 miles per hour to achieve the same goal. By following this workout, he will burn around 400 calories.

Here’s how to carry out your 30-minute steady-state treadmill workout:

Step One:

Start walking on the treadmill at a speed of 3 miles per hour. Over five minutes, gradually build the speed. As the timer ticks to five minutes, you should run comfortably at 7.0 miles per hour.

Step Two:

Maintain a steady running pace for the next 23 minutes.

Step Three:

Over the last two minutes, gradually decrease your speed until you are walking at 3 miles per hour for the last 30 seconds.

Workout Two: High-Intensity Interval Training

High-Intensity Interval Training was developed out of the unique training methods that the Japanese Olympic Speed Skating team head coach, Irisawa Koichi, developed in 1996.

Koichi has the athletes exercising on a cycle ergometer for extremely hard and fast 20-second sessions, followed by 10 seconds of rest. From this, a study emerged headed by Dr. Azumi Tabata. Today, HIIT training is commonly referred to as the Tabata Protocol.

Tabata’s studies showed his subjects producing impressive results that make traditional (steady-state) cardio seem ineffective by comparison. The system claimed worldwide interest, and the HIIT style has become one of the most popular sweat session methods.

With HIIT, you will burn a lot of calories while you are training. But, you will burn even more calories after the workout. That’s because HIIT brings on the excess post-oxygen consumption (EPOC) effect, which boosts your metabolism for 48 hours after your session.

Here’s how to carry out your 30-minute HIIT treadmill workout:

Step One:

Start walking on the treadmill at a speed of 3 miles per hour. Over five minutes, gradually build the speed. As the timer ticks over to five minutes, you should be sprinting at a challenging pace.

If you are super fit, that might be the max speed of the treadmill (usually 10-12 mph). However, you will need to find the speed that is challenging but manageable for you.

Step Two:

Sprint for exactly 20 seconds.

Step Three:

Throw your legs out to the side of the running belt. This allows you to rest without reducing the speed of the running belt. You have exactly 10 seconds to rest.

Step Four:

Start your next 20-second sprint to maintain the same pace as the last sprint.

Step Five:

Continue this sprint/rest pattern until you have done eight sprints.

Step Six:

Take the speed back down to 3 miles power hour. Repeat the warmup for the next five minutes by gradually building to your peak speed.

Step Seven:

Go through another 8-round HIIT sprint cycle.

Step Eight:

Finish with a 5-minute warm-down.

2 Ways to Maximize Your Calories Burned

Use the Incline Function 

Training on an incline treadmill is like walking uphill. It takes more energy, gives your quadriceps, glutes, hamstrings, and calves a more challenging workout, and burns more calories.

By setting the treadmill to a six percent incline, you will burn an extra 50-60 calories during a 30-minute workout.

Hold Dumbbells

Holding a pair of light dumbbells will increase your resistance, causing greater calories burned. Once you’re used to walking with dumbbells in hand, you can begin doing bicep curls or front raises.

Combining treadmill walking with dumbbell work requires quite a lot of balance in a cardio workout. So, this should not be done by beginners.

Summary

There is no standard rate of calorie burn for all people.

A 125-pound woman will burn 300 calories in half an hour by running at a pace of 7 miles per hour. In this article, I’ve laid out two effective workouts to achieve that goal.

Want to take your running to the next level? Then you need to strengthen your body with a weight lifting routine. Check out Strong Home Gym’s review of the best all-in-one home gym machines on the market to complement your home gym.

About the Author

Hi, my name’s Steve Theunissen. I joined my first gym at age 15, and five years later, I was managing my own studio. In 1987, I became the first personal fitness trainer in New Zealand. Over the past decade, I have built a freelance fitness writing career to share my fitness passion with the world.