New York Times
:GRETCHEN REYNOLDS : Walking and running are the most popular physical
activities for American adults. But whether one is preferable to the other
in terms of improving health has long been debated. Now a variety of new
studies that pitted running directly against walking are providing some
answers. Their conclusion? It depends almost completely on what you are
hoping to accomplish.
If, for instance, you are looking to control
your weight — and shallowly or not, I am — running wins, going away. In a
study published last month in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, and
unambiguously titled "Greater Weight Loss From Running than Walking,"
researchers combed survey data from 15,237 walkers and 32,215 runners
enrolled in the National Runners and Walkers Health Study — a large survey
being conducted at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley,
California.
Participants were asked about their weight,
waist circumference, diets and typical weekly walking or running mileage
both when they joined the study, and then again up to six years later.
The runners almost uniformly were thinner
than the walkers when each joined the study. And they stayed that way
throughout. Over the years, the runners maintained their body mass and
waistlines far better than the walkers.
The difference was particularly notable
among participants over 55. Runners in this age group were not running a lot
and generally were barely expending more calories per week during exercise
than older walkers. But their body mass indexes and waist circumferences
remained significantly lower than those of age-matched walkers.
Why running should better aid weight
management than walking is not altogether clear. It might seem obvious that
running, being more strenuous then walking, burns more calories per hour.
And that's true.
But in the Berkeley study and others, when
energy expenditure was approximately matched — when walkers head out for
hours of rambling and burn the same number of calories over the course of a
week as runners — the runners seem able to control their weight better over
the long term.
( Courtesy :
Indian Express )
