Walking Versus Running: Which One is Better for Fat Loss

How many times have you heard that walking at a certain speed is more conducive to fat burning? I am assuming that if you have ever tried to lose weight or if you are into fitness, that you have heard this many times over. And you know what? This statement is exactly true. Walking at a certain heart rate burns about 1 to 5 percent more fat than when you are running. Here is the caveat though. You burn many more calories from running than you do from walking. It is just common sense. The harder something is to do, the more calories you will burn.

For example, let's say you burn 50 calories walking for 45 minutes at the optimum fat burning speed and 150 calories running for 45 minutes. Therefore, you burn 55 percent of your calories from fat and the rest from carbohydrates or muscle tissue. 55 percent of 50 would equal to roughly 28 calories burned from fat. Now, let's look at running. So, instead of walking for 45 minutes and barely breaking a sweat, you run at a good pace for 45 minutes breaking into a good sweat. Therefore, you burn 150 calories. If you only burn 50 percent of your calories from fat, that would be 75 calories of fat you burned in 45 minutes.

Now, let's compare our results. If you walked at the optimum heart rate for fat burning, you burned 50 calories total and 28 calories from fat. If you ran, you burned 150 calories total and 75 calories from fat. To illustrate my point, let's look at marathon runners in comparison to sprinters. Which body would you prefer? Marathon runners all seem to have slim but soft buddies. It is rare to see any marathon runners with distinct stomach muscles. However, when you look at Olympic sprinters in the 100 yard dash, they all seem to be cut and ripped with distinctive stomach muscles. Why? Because long distance runners try to preserve their energy for the long haul, whereas sprinters give all their effort in around 10 seconds.