Walking May Burn More Calories Than Jogging

Have you ever watched someone jog versus someone walk? If not, take a good look the next time you see someone jogging down the street, especially if they are obviously not anywhere near being in good shape. Chances are, they are struggling to bounce along and attempting, however valiantly, to at least pay lip service to the advice of their healthier friends who have probably convinced them that jogging is the only way they are going to get that weight off and get that heart rate up. As you watch that person huff and puff their way down the street, or around the track, you can almost feel them moving slower and slower, until they are so out of breath and worn out that they simply grind to a slow and agonizing halt. Show's over and they probably never made it around the track once.

Somehow, the Good News didn't get out, way back in 2001. Research shows that walking a mile on a treadmill, at about 5 miles per hour, burns at least as many calories as jogging a mile at the same 5 miles per hour! Now, there are a whole lot of plusses associated with this little tidbit, the first being that a plain treadmill is cheap. If one is a television addict, the treadmill can be plopped down right in front of the television set and the walker will never miss a show. Another plus is the fact that the treadmill is inside. Bad weather is not a problem and certainly not an excuse for not walking.

The most important aspect of walking on a treadmill, rather than doing attempted jogging, is that the person who is not in good shape can work up to the continuous speed they need over time. It is foolish to go out and try to be an Olympic swimmer on the day of one's first swimming lesson. Yet, that is exactly what the novice jogger does... out of the house and sprinting down the street ... as if they are actually going to make it more than 50 yards.

More important than doing 5 miles per hour, is getting one's heart rate up and keeping it up for a sustained period of time. If, in the beginning, 2 miles per hour does that, then the treadmill has done a far better job than 10 minutes of attempting to jog down a street or around a track. Once 2 miles per hour is mastered and the individual is comfortable with it, then the rate can be increased, gradually, until the walker is actually - and continuously - walking, not race-walking, at 5 miles per hour. This will take time, but it certainly is better to build up to walking at 5 miles per hour on a treadmill than to give up on jogging altogether!

Something about this scenario smacks strongly of the old adage that the best exercise is the exercise the person will actually do! Jogging, for those who are not in shape, is a short lived activity that quickly falls by the wayside. Walking on a treadmill is safe, comfortable, and progress is almost immediate. It may have taken 5 years for the news to get around but, the next time your svelte friend tells you how much better you would feel, look, or be - if only - you would start jogging, show them this article and your brand new treadmill.

Sources:

Western Journal of Medicine. (2001, August), Walking can burn more calories than jogging. 175(2): 124. Quoted from Journal of Sports Medicine & Physical Fitness (2001), 40: 297 - 302).