# How Does walking lose weight? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 3, 2008, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-walking-lose-weight/443791 "2008-04-03T14:00:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2008, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-walking-lose-weight/443791/21 "2008-04-04T02:30:10Z")
[QUOTE=oboelady] The last two statements in that paragraph, I think, prove that running burns more calories. “Walking at various speeds burns between 2 to 8 MET.” So the average walker burns 5 MET. “Running at various speeds burns 8 to 18 MET.” So the average runner burns 13 MET. I conclude that running burns more calories. Am I missing something? [/QUOTE] I think the article was a little misleading. She found the one point where the two activities overlap and then said it was the same. Being the literalist that I am, I would have said that they _could_ burn the same. That said, you can’t just figure the average runner and walker by finding the mean points. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2008, 8:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-walking-lose-weight/443791/22 "2008-04-04T08:26:11Z")
[QUOTE=Rhythmdvl] I never quite understood the thinking behind that. From the linked site: I guess the same calories for walking/running idea makes sense if you structure your exercise solely around distance, but aside from bragging rights (I X for Y miles every day!) aren’t most people/programs based on _time_ spent exercising? Taking the same braggart above, someone who runs for X hours per day is going to burn much more than someone who walks the equivalent amount of time. Maybe this is obvious, maybe I’m an oddity who thinks of exercise in time units, or maybe I missed some nuance – but the pronouncement still strikes me as somehow ‘off.’ [/QUOTE] I agree. However I have usually heard it specifically stated as “Walking a mile burns the same calories as running a mile” which is fairer, if not necessarily completely true. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2008, 8:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-walking-lose-weight/443791/23 "2008-04-04T08:50:51Z")
One practical, additional way that walking might also be helping you shed weight, **Lobsang** is that maybe when you’re out walking, _you’re not eating_. I realise this is nothing to do with the energy expenditure equations of one activity vs another vs _no_ activity, but going out for a long walk probably does mean you’re eliminating some between-meal snacking. Unless you’re walking to the chippy, of course. ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2008, 8:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-walking-lose-weight/443791/24 "2008-04-04T08:56:01Z")
[QUOTE=CookingWithGas] The main cause of burned calories during exercise is generating waste heat. [/quote] As has already been noted, this isn’t true in any sense. In cold weather it is very likely that you will stil be shivering while you are exercising. IOW the body is generating absolutely _no_ waste heat. Despite that you will still burn far more calories running in cold wetaher than you will simply by standing still. Quite simply the vast majority of calories are burned during exercise to provide motive force. Nothing more, nothing less. > [@](#): > > Some calories are also expended in an elevated metabolic rate afterwards, especially for aerobic exercise. For _an_aerobic exercise. Aerobic exercise incurs no future metabolic debt, by definition. > [@](#): > > Work is not energy expended. If I push like crazy on a brick wall for an hour, that’s force times zero distance. I’ve done zero work but will have expended a lot of energy. You have in fact done a shedload of work. The only thing you haven’t done is _uselful_ work. Your muscles are tiny linear motors that need to zip back and forwards in order for you to push on anything. It doesn’t matter whether the object you are pressing moves or not. Your body is doing exactly as much work as if the wall were moving forwards under the same pressure. Precisely the same amount of work was done for the energy expended. A simple test to determine whether work was done: has your body lost energy or mass as a result of pushing on the walll? If so then the energy must have been transferred from your body to something else. That is the very definition of work: the transfer of energy out of a system. So long as energy or mass is lost work must have been done. ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2008, 10:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-walking-lose-weight/443791/25 "2008-04-04T10:41:42Z")
Raising your heart rate by just 10-15% for at least 30 minutes gives you the best _aerobic_ exercise. Running can become [anaerobic](http://www.weightlossforall.com/anaerobic%20training.htm) easily. Fat burns best aerobicly. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2008, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-walking-lose-weight/443791/26 "2008-04-04T13:37:12Z")
[QUOTE=Lobsang] I have reasonable understanding that you lose weight by burning more calories than you consume, and that you can burn calories fast by doing something that increases your heart rate quite a lot, or that tears muscle tissue (and you burn calories while the body repairs it over time) [/QUOTE] “Tearing” muscle tissue is NEVER a desired effect of exercise - it’s something that should be avoided. Think of it this way: would you cut yourself in order to lose the weight of the blood? Not unless you’ve got some serious mental problems, you wouldn’t. That tearing you’re talking about is like taking a knife to yourself, only less orderly. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2008, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-walking-lose-weight/443791/27 "2008-04-04T14:30:46Z")
I thought muscle tearing, on a microscopic scale, is what happens any time you exercise so as to build muscle bulk. ---
**Author:** ![Santo\_Rugger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Santo\_Rugger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Santo_Rugger)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2008, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-walking-lose-weight/443791/28 "2008-04-04T15:18:29Z")
[QUOTE=Duck Duck Goose] \ Also, it’s interesting to note that [burn about the same number of calories walking as you do running.](http://walking.about.com/od/beginners/a/walkingmyths.htm) So walking faster won’t help you lose weight faster.\ [/QUOTE] Per mile, sure. Let’s go to the park. You walk a mile. I’ll run a mile, and then sit on the bench eating my ice cream while you finish up your exercise. :smack: [QUOTE=Nava] “Tearing” muscle tissue is NEVER a desired effect of exercise - it’s something that should be avoided. Think of it this way: would you cut yourself in order to lose the weight of the blood? Not unless you’ve got some serious mental problems, you wouldn’t. That tearing you’re talking about is like taking a knife to yourself, only less orderly. [/QUOTE] This is wrong. You’re thinking of a “pulled” muscle, while the statement was refering to microscopic tears that must be repaired in order for the muscle to re_build_ itself. that’s why they call it body _build_ing. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2008, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-walking-lose-weight/443791/29 "2008-04-04T15:34:11Z")
[QUOTE=Blake] In cold weather it is very likely that you will stil be shivering while you are exercising. IOW the body is generating absolutely _no_ waste heat. [/quote] I am not speaking in terms of biology but in terms of physics. Waste heat is heat generated by inefficiencies in the processes–when you walk, some energy is going into moving and some goes into generating heat. The heat is wasted energy in the physics sense, similar to heat from an internal combusion engine. In cold weather your waste heat is dissipated; that doesn’t mean there isn’t any waste heat. We may just be having a clash in terminology. > [@](#): > > For _an_aerobic exercise. Aerobic exercise incurs no future metabolic debt, by definition. Future metabolic debt is not the only issue. [One cite](http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0846/is_8_21/ai_83911021). > [@](#): > > A simple test to determine whether work was done: has your body lost energy or mass as a result of pushing on the walll? If so then the energy must have been transferred from your body to something else. That is the very definition of work: the transfer of energy out of a system. So long as energy or mass is lost work must have been done. You have a point with regard to one kind of work that is done to create the push, however, you are doing no work on the wall. > [@](#): > > Do not confuse the work you do to create a force with the work done by the force you create; they are not the same. The force you exert holding a 100 pound barbell above your head does no work on the barbell while the barbell is at rest, but you do work (on a molecular level) to create that force. [Cite](http://www.ac.wwu.edu/~vawter/PhysicsNet/Topics/Work/DefinitionWork.html). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-walking-lose-weight/443791.md?page=1)