Jogging is much better than walking if you want to lose several pounds within a few months--if you can keep jogging. Walking is easier and less risky. Consequently, walking for several years helps people control their weight long-term, according to "Walking Your Steps to Health," a 2009 Harvard Men's Health Watch article. Losing weight jogging or running is difficult because you have to burn 3,500 calories more than you consume to lose one pound.
Reminder
Calories are energy measurements. Sedentary adults should consume 1,600 to 2,000 calories daily. Vigorous exercise requires more calories. If you weigh 150 lbs. and plan to jog at a pace of nine minutes per mile for one hour, you will maximize your performance if you eat 792 more calories, mostly from carbohydrates, in the 24 hours before your run, according to "Swim, Bike, Run." Eating less might mean more weight loss, but it also can make you tired and more susceptible to illness or injury.
Short-Term Stats
Jogging is slower running, according to "An Invitation to Health." "General" jogging burns 493 calories per hour if you weigh 155 lbs., while walking at a "very brisk pace" burns 281 calories per hour, according to a Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Services study. The difference widens if you run faster. A 155-lb. person running for an hour burns 563 calories running 5 mph, the slowest running tested, and 880 calories running a mile in eight minutes or 7.5 mph.
Intensity
Statistically, joggers burn more calories than walkers, but how hard you exercise is more important than the kind of exercise or your speed. "It's all about heart rate, oxygen and energy expended," explains "The Complete Guide to Walking." Exercising more intensely increases your heart rate. When your heart rate increases, your muscles need more oxygen and using more oxygen causes you to burn more calories.
Risks
Joggers burn more calories than walkers, but they're more likely to be unable to exercise because of injury. It's physics. Force equals mass times acceleration. Joggers are airborne so they hit the ground at a force "three or four times their body weight," while even competitive race walkers hit the ground at a force "one-and-a-half times their body weight," according to "Guide to Walking" author Mark Fenton. Runners are about 15 times more likely to be hurt than walkers, reports Harvard Men's Health Watch.
Long-Term Stats
Walkers weighed much less than nonwalkers, according to a 15-year study of 4,995 Americans, reported Harvard Men's Health Watch in Aug., 2009. Walking's benefits depended on the person's size, but 160-lb. people who walked 35 minutes daily would have weighed 178 lbs. if they hadn't walked. Studies on joggers are difficult to find, but "Dr. Dean Ornish's Program for Reversing Heart Disease" recommends walking over jogging. Ornish cited two studies that concluded you're seven times more likely to die during jogging than sedentary activity.
References
- Harvard Men's Health Watch: Walking: Your Steps to Health
- "Swim, Bike, Run"; Glenn Town and Todd Kearney; 1994
- State of Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Services: Calories Burned Per Hour
- "The Complete Guide to Walking"; Mark Fenton; 2001
- "Dr. Dean Ornish's Program For Reversing Heart Disease"; Dr. Dean Ornish; 1996
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