Run, Don’t Walk, to Learn the Relative Advantages of Each

Photo by Daniel Reche: https://www.pexels.com/photo/photo-of-woman-wearing-pink-sports-shoes-walking-1556710/

Walking is often thought of as an “entry-level” exercise – a good, safe way to get started, but something for less-fit people to do if they can’t do something more intense, or a means to gain conditioning before advancing to more intense activities like running.

Running, on the other hand, has more often been seen as “real” exercise – and a necessity for anyone who really wants to lose weight and get in shape.

But is that really the case?

As a chiropractor, I deal with joint issues on a pretty frequent basis. I can tell you that from a joint health issue, running is definitely not ideal. The problem with running is that for a brief period of time in the gait cycle, your body is completely off the ground, and there’s significant impact on the joints when your foot makes contact with the surface again. This means considerably more wear and tear on the joints - especially the feet, ankles, knees, hips, and lower spine – than what occurs with walking a comparable distance.

Some people tolerate that increased mechanical stress on their joints from running better than others, and there are ways to reduce the impact on the joints through using equipment like treadmills with shock-absorbing surfaces, but the longer you run consistently, the greater the chances that it will start to create joint issues. If your goal is to stay fit throughout your life, running is just not an ideal form of exercise for long-term regular use.

But what about weight loss? Running is better for weight loss, right?

Not necessarily – even if we ignore the potential to be sidelined from exercise for an extended period of time by a running-related injury.

Running does burn more calories per unit of time than walking, and the faster you run, the more calories you burn. But there’s more to the story.

First of all, while walking consumes fewer calories than running, the percentage of calories burned from fat stores is higher from walking (running burns more glycogen). You’ll still burn more fat calories by running because the total calories burned is quite a bit higher, but the fat loss advantage of running over walking is not as much as it might seem from just calorie burning.

Now, that calorie-burning advantage of running is time-based. When we look at the distance covered, running and walking are actually pretty close in terms of calorie-burning. Obviously, walking a mile takes longer than running a mile, and if you are short on time, you might not have the opportunity to make up the difference to be able to meet your fitness goals by walking instead of running, but there is another side of the time coin to be considered.

The more time you spend engaging in exercise, the less time you’ll be spending in your refrigerator and pantry. In terms of strictly weight management (not overall fitness and health), diet is far more important than exercise, and if you don’t have as much time to snack, you’ll tend to eat less, and subsequently lose weight. So, walking can sometimes be better for weight loss than running, simply because you have less time for eating!

This brings me to a little-known disadvantage of running as compared to walking – running and other higher-intensity exercise tends to increase your appetite pretty significantly. The more intense and concentrated stress on the body from running stimulates the production of a handful of hormones and biochemicals that stimulate appetite. This is a protective mechanism the body has to help you withstand the more intense physical stresses long-term, and it can be beneficial in some circumstances, but not so much when you are trying to lose weight and burn fat. Walking generally does not produce these appetite-stimulants in significant quantities.

So, while running will burn more calories than walking you may find yourself eating more, thereby limiting your results. Obviously, you can, through discipline and willpower (or possibly being locked away with someone else controlling your access to food) resist the drive to eat more, but it makes things more challenging.

Ultimately, even though walking burns less calories, it might actually be more effective to help you lose weight and burn fat because you won’t have the same issues with hunger. For many people, they find it easier to keep calorie consumption lower than calorie burning with walking rather than running because they aren’t constantly battling hunger.

All of that being said, if you’re a die-hard runner, and it’s something you really enjoy and can do so without a lot of pain and injuries, by all means, continue!

But if you’ve been discouraged because you thought running would be necessary to meet your weight and fitness goals, and you just didn’t see how to get to that point, take heart!

That “beginner” exercise, walking, is actually pretty advanced as part of an overall fitness and weight-management approach!

Until next time…

George Best, D.C.