1. Walking fast or running burns more calories per mile than walking at a moderate or easy pace.
Speed has only a small effect on the calories burned per mile. If you walk briskly for a mile or if you run a mile, you burn about the same calories.
Research on the metabolic equivalents (MET) of various activities rates each activity by calories per kilogram per hour. Just sitting quietly burns 1 MET. If you weigh 150 pounds, that is 68 calories per hour.
A runner and a fast walker, both at a speed of 12 minutes per mile or 5 miles per hour, achieve the exact same 8 MET. Their calories per mile and calories per hour are identical. Walking at various speeds burns between 2 to 8 MET. Running at various speeds burns 8 to 18 MET.
That sounds like a big difference, but it is mostly due to covering more distance in the same time. Calories burned per mile instead depends mostly on your weight -- you burn more if you weigh more. The wisest way to burn more calories is to walk or run further, rather than to add weight. If you walk fast or run, you go further in less time.
You burn more calories in a mile if you use the racewalking technique, as it uses more muscles than regular walking. Very slow walking also burns a few more calories per mile, as you lose your momentum and your walking is less efficient.
Calories Burned Walking
More: Running vs. Walking Calories
2. Walking shoes are better than running shoes
While some well-designed walking shoes are on the market, there are many shoes labeled as walking shoes which are heavy, stiff, overly cushioned and not acceptable for walking.
Many walkers do well wearing running shoes that are flexible, have a low heel, and are properly fit for their walking style.
How to Choose Walking Shoes
8 More Walking Shoe Myths
3. Walking does you no good, you need to exercise harder.
Study after study shows that walking 30 to 60 minutes a day at a moderate pace reduces major health risks substantially.
Intense exercise has its own appeal, especially to competitive-type people. But an emphasis on sweaty, intense exercise turns off many people, who then stay sedentary and increase their health risks.
Walking is a great lifelong exercise that most people can do, and keep doing their entire lives.
Walking: The Miracle Cure
Next Myths: Water, Weights, and Marathons
Sources:
AINSWORTH BE, Haskell WL, Whitt MC, Irwin ML, Swartz AM, Strath SJ, O'Brien WL, Bassett DR Jr, Schmitz KH, Emplaincourt PO, Jacobs DR Jr, Leon AS. "Compendium of Physical Activities: An update of activity codes and MET intensities." Med Sci Sports Exerc 2000;32 (Suppl):S498-S516.
Michael F. Leitzmann, MD, DrPH; Yikyung Park, ScD; Aaron Blair, PhD; Rachel Ballard-Barbash, MD; Traci Mouw, MPH; Albert R. Hollenbeck, PhD; Arthur Schatzkin, MD, DrPH. "Physical Activity Recommendations and Decreased Risk of Mortality." ARCH INTERN MED. VOL 167 (NO. 22), DEC 10/24, 2007.
