Physical Wellness

Scientists Discover Most Effective Way to Burn Calories by Just Walking

By Kristine Belle | Update Date: Jun 15, 2024 09:12 PM EDT
walking exercise

walking exercise | (Photo : Image by Mabel Amber, who will one day from Pixabay)

There's a way for a simple stroll to become the perfect tool to burn more calories.

Imagine if you burned more calories while walking; you'd lose weight and become fit in no time.

But here's a thing: experts recently found a way for this to become a reality. Based on new research, there's a simple yet effective way to make walking a game-changer in your weight loss or fitness journey.

Scientists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst discovered that striding in an uneven cadence can actually burn more calories than going for an even flow in one's stroll.

The team studied how non-uniform strides when walking affected metabolism or the calorie-burning mechanism of the body. They found that this played a "modest albeit significant role" in burning more calories during walks.

For the study, the group of researchers observed the movements of at least 18 healthy adults. They examined the measurable data from their walks and learned that every 1% difference in steps led to a 0.7% increase in energy used. This is in comparison to evenly sized steps.

As part of the procedure, all participants were made to walk for five minutes on a treadmill. A motion capture system recorded their strides at a common speed of 1.2 meters per second. Each wore a mouthpiece that measured their carbon dioxide production

It is important to note that the team did not measure the calories burned by the participants, who were aged 24 and weighed at least 155 lb or 70.5 kg on average.

"Our data suggest that a 2.7% increase in step length variability would increase the metabolic cost of walking by 1.7%," the authors wrote in their study published on the pre-print website bioRxiv.

Adam Grimmit, a co-author and expert in exercise physiology at the university, reiterated the findings in a statement obtained by the Daily Mail, saying, "I think it would be fair to assume that more frequent and larger variations in stride length would increase your metabolic rate while walking."

The scientists also indicated in their study that uneven walking could increase muscular contraction and metabolism, and this could be good for older adults, especially those with neurological conditions that disable them from walking evenly.

However, they also admitted that further studies are needed to prove the findings.

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