Almost everyone who decides to get fit by losing weight try either running or walking as their first choice of exercise. However, you should first remember that to reduce weight, one should emphasize more on reducing the intake of calories than burning them and hence the famous quote, which says 80% diet and 20% exercise for weight loss stands true.
Say for example, if you want to burn 500 calories, you’ll have to jog for an hour on a treadmill or do 45 min of jump rope or 1.5 hr mowing the lawn or 2 hours of moderate walking. But, if you eat 100g of chips, then you’d end up with the same calories or even more. While the exercise takes a lot of time to burn calories, you can easily cut those from the diet by avoiding these junk foods.
Find the Best Treadmill for Running at Home
However, this doesn’t mean that exercise is not good for weight loss. It is helpful in building muscle, which burns more calories even after you’ve finished your workout routine. So, always ensure to watch what you’re eating if you wanted to lose weight. No matter how rigorous your workouts are, you won’t be losing much weight if you don’t change your bad eating habits.
Tip: Along with exercise, you can follow the 3 day military diet + 4 day off meal plan to lose more weight in less time. Also, see how many calories you get on the military diet?
Does Running Burn More Calories than Walking?
Coming to our topic, it is just a myth that running helps you burn more calories than walking. Both the forms burn roughly similar number of calories. But, the difference lies with the number of minutes/hours you’ve performed the cardio.
Say for example, 1 km of running and 1 km of walking burns the same calories. But, it takes around 8 minutes to walk 1 kilometre, while you can achieve the same goal in 3-4 minutes by running. So, if you run for 15 minutes, then you can easily do 4 kilometres. But, the same distance takes around 32 minutes if you prefer walking.
Therefore, it is very clear from the above example that both running and walking burns same number of calories, but the time you take to complete those kilometres makes a difference.
If you’re short of time, then you can simply run for 15 minutes to cover the 4 km distance. If you’re interested in walking and can spare 30 minutes for exercise, then you can walk the same distance to burn those calories.
P.S: You should also remember that not every person burns the same calories. It increases on the bodyweight of the person. Below are a few specifics of how many calories a 160 pound or 73 kg person burns per mile by walking and running.
Calories Burned Per Mile for 160 Pound Person
Walking
- 2.0 mph – 91
- 2.5 mph – 87
- 3.0 mph – 85
- 3.5 mph – 83
- 4.0 mph – 91
- 4.5 mph – 102
- 5.0 mph – 116
Running
- 5.0 mph – 116
- 6.0 mph – 121
- 7.0 mph – 119
- 8.0 mph – 123
- 9.0 mph – 121
- 10.0 mph – 131
For more details, you can refer to this guide by VeryWell.com
