Blog by: Michael Scruggs, Elite Health & Fitness, Inc. You probably already know that any movement you do gives your mood a big boost and makes a big difference in your weight loss efforts. There’s no shortage of ways to move your body, but a common question I gt over and over again is: Is my time better spent walking or running? Well time is the facto here, because a mile is a mile, no matter how you get there, the energy to move that distance is basically the same. The difference is the time you take to expend that energy. How much time do you have? What kind of movement are you capable of? Either one is good, but which one is better? Most people are looking for that quick fix…well obviously running is faster than walking. When it comes to only how many calories you burn per hour, running is obviously the better workout. Your exact calorie burn depends on how much you weigh and how fast you run, but running expends more energy over a shorter period of time. Want an idea of the difference in calorie burn between running and walking? Consider these statistics for a person who weighs 155 lbs :Running 30 minutes at 5 miles per hour burns 298 calories Running 30 minutes at 6 miles per hour burns 372 calories Running 30 minutes at 7.5 miles per hour burns 465 calories Walking 30 minutes at 3.5 miles per hour burns 149 calories Walking 30 minutes at 4 miles per hour burns 167 calories Walking 30 minutes at 4.5 miles per hour burns 186 calories. Though running clearly provides a greater impact on how many calories are burned, that doesn’t mean that doing it is easy. Depending on your physical condition, running for 30 minutes (or longer) may be out of the question. So, does that mean that you have to walk for more than an hour in order to get the same amount of impact? Also to be considered is the cardiovascular (heart) workout you get the faster you run. What if I told you that there’s another option. What if we mix it up a little? Have you ever heard of High-Intensity Interval Training, or HIIT. Studies have shown that by going back and forth between walking and running you can eliminate the need to run long distances and still get a big effect. How does HIIT work? A HIIT workout has you doing a hard workout for a very short period of time, then resting while still doing something active. That means that you get your heart rate way up, and then you recover and catch your breath, then do it again. When you ask your body to push itself you create a brief oxygen shortage. When your body recovers, you take in more oxygen to make up for the loss. The result is that you burn more fat. Studies have shown that a HIIT workout can burn more calories in a shorter period of time as a result of the EPOC effect (excess post-exercise oxygen consumption).There are a lot of other advantages to doing a HIIT workout, such as giving your heart a workout that it will never get walking. Besides a better fat burn, it also boosts your metabolism for as long as 24-48 hours after your workout. It takes less time than a regular workout and you don’t need any expensive equipment.
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