Burning calories is essential in order to melt away fat and lower your risk for heart attack, cancer and obesity. While you'll use calories quickly by walking outside by the lake or indoors on a treadmill, the Merck Manuals Medical Library reports that the low-impact foot exercise typically burns fewer calories than vigorous forms of aerobic activity --- including running. Understanding the differences between running and walking for weight loss will enable you to determine which method is ideal for your health and lifestyle.
Convenient Exercise Methods
People who walk or run are performing aerobic exercise, or activity that increases both your breathing and heart rate. MayoClinic.com recommends aerobic exercise as ideal for weight loss, since activities like running keep you moving for sustained time periods and burn large amounts of calories quickly. Both walking and running offer a greater level of convenience than most forms of exercise, because you can conduct your workout on a treadmill at the gym or outside in a scenic location. Aerobic benefits include more than burned calories, as you'll also have a stronger heart and a greater chance to avoid the threat of diabetes, depression and osteoporosis.
Running & Calories Burned
The President's Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition reports that running is a vigorous form of aerobic exercise that typically burns more calories than almost any other aerobic method, including moderate activities like walking. A person with a weight of 150 lbs. who runs at a pace of six miles per hour, either on a treadmill or outdoors, burn about 654 calories in 60 minutes. The same person burns 690 calories --- slightly more than running --- when exercising on a cross-country ski machine. Other aerobic methods that burn greater than 350 calories per hour include racquetball, aerobic dancing, bicycling, tennis and basketball.
Low-Impact Walking
Walking offers many benefits --- including a lower risk of injury than running --- although the activity expends significantly less calories. A person with a weight of 150 lbs. who walks at a speed of two miles per hour usually burns roughly 198 calories in 60 minutes. Doctors often suggest walking as a safe exercise method for beginners, as well as for older adults, since the activity subjects your body to minimal joint strain and allows you to always keep one foot on the ground. You'll burn more calories during a walk by swiveling your hips in a side-to-side motion and keeping your elbows bent. Walking on the stairs, or stair climbing on a machine at the gym, also uses double the calories of a normal walk.
Choosing Your Workout
Although your chance for significant weight loss increases when you burn high amounts of calories, ask your physician about a safe exercise plan for your overall health condition. The Cleveland Clinic reports that aerobic activities like running and walking are most effective when performed consistently, so consider 30 to 60 minutes of activity on most days of the week based on your fitness level and weight-loss goals.
References
- MayoClinic.com: Aerobic Exercise: Top 10 Reasons to Get Physical; February 2011
- MayoClinic.com: Obesity; May 2011
- Merck Manuals: Choosing the Right Exercise; September 2007
- President's Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition: Exercise and Weight Control
- Cleveland Clinic: Exercise and Weight Control
- Harvard Medical School: Walking: Your Steps to Health; August 2009
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