Researchers show more energy needed to get going than later in walks when body is working more efficiently.
Researchers have hit on an unusual tip for walkers who want to burn more calories: rather than plodding along steadily from start to finish, consider taking rest stops.
The advice emerged from a study of volunteers who were put through their paces in the laboratory to measure the oxygen and energy demands of short strolls versus longer walks.
Tests on the participants found that walking or climbing stairs in 10- to 30-second bouts required 20 to 60% more oxygen, a proxy for energy consumption, than covering the same distance in one continuous session, largely because walking is more efficient after several minutes in motion.
“When we walk for shorter bouts, we use more energy and consume more oxygen to cover the same distance,” said Francesco Luciano, a researcher at the University of Milan and first author on the study. “It’s like having a car that consumes more fuel during the first few kilometres than it does afterwards.”
The team launched the study after noticing that many estimates of the energy needed for walking drew on data from people exercising at a metabolic steady state.…