Calorie Count

I have heard that walkling a mile burns as many calories as running one, is this true?

First it is important for us to understand what calories are. A calorie is a measurement of heat, but for our purposes it is defined as, "a unit of energy-producing potential supplied by food and released upon oxidation by the body, equal to the amount of energy required to raise the temperature of 1 kilogram of water by 1°C at one atmosphere pressure."

Okay so what does that mean? Taking basic physics into account one could quite easily come to the conclusion that walking a mile burns as many calories as running one. Mile for mile running and walking burn approximately the same number of calories, but minute for minute, the faster your speed, the more calories you burn, giving running the calorie burning edge.

In general running should cause more exertion than walking, that being said it there are many other contributing factors that play a part in calorie consumption. Heart rate is one, and optimal heart rate should be taken into account; another is the speed and incline at which you are walking or running.

There is a reason there is so much money invested in exercise machines that offer a low impact alternative to cardio-pulmonary training. Running can be extremely hard on the joints, and can also cause many injuries when compared to a low impact exercise such as walking. Probably the most popular of these new generation machines are the elliptical orbit machines, where the feet actually move in an ellipse pattern, giving the user some of the same bennifits as running while reducing the stress on their joints and back.

More to come....