Just keep moving if you want to shift the pounds, says Dr David Ashton of Healthier Weight

If I ask you to run a mile or walk a mile, which uses more calories? Most people will say running, but my answer has always been that they both use the same—around 100 calories. After all, if you move the same mass over the same distance, the work required must be the same: it’s just physics. The only difference is that if you run, you’ll cover the distance in less time.

I’ve told my patients this thousands of times. However, astudy by a group of scientists at Syracuse University seems to suggest my advice is wrong. The researchers measured the actual calorie burn of 12 men and 12 women while running and walking roughly a mile on a treadmill. The men burned an average of 124 calories while running, and just 88 while walking; women burned 105 and 74 respectively. So the calorie burn for running and walking was very different. Why?

It’s to do with your centre of gravity.

When you walk, you keep your legs mostly straight and your centre of gravity remains constant apart from a slight rise and fall. When running, you actually jump from one foot to the other and each jump raises your centre of gravity. Then as you land, your leg absorbs the shock by bending and your centre of gravity is at its lowest. So there’s a pronounced up-and-down movement.

To lift your body weight up and down in the vertical plane means overcoming gravity and this takes energy—which is why it requires more calories.The assumption I’d made was that the only difference between running and walking was speed in the horizontal plane, ignoring the large amount of work done in the vertical plane. In health terms none of this matters.

Walking is a great exercise for weight loss and for maintaining a healthy weight. If burning calories takes a bit longer than running, so what? Just enjoy the view!

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