Does wind affect your running?

[Cyron030]

If I run in a windy and cold place and I don't sweat that much like in hot weather, do I burn less calorie in cold weather?

[Serpentarius]

no, calorie usage is a function of oxygen consumption

[DyingAtheist]

If anything you're more likely to burn calories in cold weather. It's been shown many times that people can run for longer and faster in cooler weather, so your workouts are likely to be more effective. People all too often equate sweating to calorie burn.

[ericmforest]

Serpentarius is of course correct about calorie use and oxygen consumption. BUT a complete and pragmatic answer to your question is a lot messier.

The heart works way harder in the heat to send oxygen to the skin and keep you cool, and a faster pumping heart means you are moving more oxygen. And moving more oxygen means more calories burned. When it's hot and humid, sweating is even less effective at cooling you because the air wicks less sweat from your skin and therefore less heat. So the heart actually works harder and burns more calories when it is hot and humid. Therefore if you run the same distance in the same time as mild weather, you have burned more calories.

As Dying Atheist says, you can run further in milder weather because the body isn't working as hard to keep you cool. This means you can run further, but it also means that the same distance requires less work from your body than it would if it were hot. Therefore you are burning less calories - per unit of distance, per unit of time. So even though you can run faster and farther, you will need to do so in order to exert the same net effort (and burn the same calories).

If it's even colder out you might need to wear more clothing. That clothing adds mass and friction, and that can be saturated with sweat, adding still more weight and friction. It means more calories burned for the same run in the same time as mild weather.

So can I put numbers on all of this? No. Nobody can measure calorie burning on that level in real time. I don't know your goals or why you ask the question, but I can say if you want to burn calories and if you want to learn to run faster and further, don't worry about optimizing the conditions because you cant. Just push yourself to your absolute limit every 2-3 runs.