Run or walk. You know the drill: Aim for at least 150 to 300 minutes weekly of moderate activity or 75 to 150 minutes of moderately intense activity. These are the current US Department of Health and Human Services Physical Activity Guidelines. Let me begin by stating my firmly held belief that any movement can be valuable in promoting health. With that said, let the competition begin.
Let’s start with heart health. It seems evident that running makes our hearts work harder than does walking. However, if you have the time to walk for a long while, things get a bit more complicated.
Runners appear to have a nearly five percent lower risk of cardiovascular disease when compared with inactive individuals. That’s the conclusion of a 2013 report examining nearly 50,000 people in the National Walkers’ Health Study and National Runners’ Health Study II.
Here’s where things get more interesting: Walkers who burned the same number of calories as did the runners had a risk level nine percent lower than those in the inactive group.
The researchers concluded that when it comes to health benefits such as heart disease risk reduction, equivalent energy expenditures by moderate (walking) and vigorous (running) exercise produce similar risk reductions. These improvements apply to high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes mellitus, and possibly heart disease.
In summary, while running is more efficient for energy expenditure for cardiovascular risk reduction, it’s a tie.
Running is more efficient in terms of burning calories. For example, a 15-minute jog burns roughly the same number of calories as does a 30-minute walk.
Let’s look more closely at the calorie-burning of each form of physical activity. If you weigh 160 pounds, for example, taking a brisk walk at about 3.5 miles per hour (mph) pace will burn about 156 calories over thirty minutes. Run at a 6-mph pace for the same amount of time, and you burn approximately 356 calories.
You’ll need to spend more time walking (than you do running) to get the same health upsides simply because it takes longer to walk than to run the same distance. For instance, a 15-minute jog burns about the same number of calories as a brisk half-hour walk.
You need to burn approximately 3,500 calories to lose one pound. If your goal is to lose weight, running may be a better choice than walking.
Please go here to see my Medium piece, Run or Walk:
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