[crabbone]

Yeah, I too thought this number was unrealistic. I run, and I know that it takes about 60 calories per km (I run 10 km usually). To burn 3000 I'd have to... run more than a marathon (50 km, marathon is 42 km). Running marathon every day is... I won't say impossible, but is highly impractical (and actually impossible for most people who can run marathon). For an average runner, it takes 4-5 hours. So, I think that to burn 3k calories by walking one would need to walk way, way longer than 5 hours a day. Not sure even if it's possible to squeeze that much walking in a day.

[defrost]

For interest:

William Goodge smashes record after running across Australia in 35 days

  British athlete four days quicker than previous record holder who completed 3,800km feat in 39 days

  Spurred on by his mother’s battle with cancer, and with his father by his side, William Goodge crossed the finish line in Sydney just after 4pm on Monday.

  It brought an end to 35 days of pounding the pavement, striding the equivalent of two-and-a-half marathons a day.

May 19th, 2025: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/may/19/william-goodge...

[morepork]

Or

> Shannon-Leigh Litt has run 500 ultra marathons in 500 Days

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/360690060/northlander-runs-her...

Out of reach for most of us though.

[psb217]

The best way to hit 3000 is cycling. A reasonably fit (70kg-100kg) cyclist should burn 600-800 cal/hr riding at a moderate pace, so 3000 is a 4-5hr ride. It wouldn't be unusual for an enthusiastic amateur cyclist to hit that 1-2x/week.

[ndsipa_pomu]

However, if you assume that 2000 calories is pretty much maintenance and you'll burn that anyway, then you only need somewhere around an hour and a half or two hours cycling. Also if you can replace a medium commute with cycling, then it's not that difficult to hit that target just through active travel. (I used to regularly cycle commute approx 37kms each way and I could easily hit 1000 calories on just one of the journeys).

[psb217]

Yeah. It's easy to get over 3000 total daily calories if you have, eg, an hour of cycle commute per day and then add some purposeful gym or running on top.

[burnt-resistor]

Could do it far more biomechanically efficient on an elliptical, but overdoing cardio risks less type IIb (wiry appearance) and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

Or incorporate more strength training that increases type IIb adaptations and greater BMR.