Walking and weight loss question.

[TammyinTN]

Which would burn the most calories...walking 5 miles at once or walking 1 mile 5 times a day? I can easily break away for 15 minutes throughout the day but it hard for me to get in 1.5 hours of walking all at once in the morning before school.

Thanks!:D

[HollyDay]

I just read something about this at the library last week. I will try to recall the name of the book. The author was proposing walking 15 min after each meal. That would total 45 min/day. She said it had to be a brisk walk - at least a mile at a time. Her theory was, if you walk after a meal, the impact on blood glucose levels would be more moderate and would therefore help to lose weight.

 

Ttapp has a similar theory with their hoe-downs. You might check that out over at the ttapp website.

 

HTH

[KingM]

Same work, same caloric expenditure. The only real difference would be that there might be a small cardiovascular benefit to raising your heart rate for a more extended period of time, but I'm not sure.

[Laurie4b]

I am pretty sure the answer is that there is no difference. The newest recommendations state that there has to be at least 10 min. of continuous aerbobic activity to benefit the heart, but you can string those 10 min together however you'd like. You will increase your calorie burn if you do intervals while walking. Intervals means periods of less intensity alternated with periods of more intensity. This will occur naturally if you keep the same speed and are walking on a terrain with hills. If it's flat, you can increase speed, or pump your arms to increase heart rate. You burn more making yourself adjust than just going the whole time at the same speed.

[lionfamily1999]

Keeping your heart rate at certain levels for continuous periods is the only 'loss' in breaking it up, but if you have to choose, either less walking or less constant walking, go with less constant walking :)

[TeacherZee]

If you think you will be more likely to walk 5 short times per day than 1 long time I would aim for the 5 short times. Maybe try and string two of them together making one slightly longer walk and three shorter ones. But as others have said if you do at least 3 x 10 minutes per day you are doing the recommended amount.