Getting 10,000 steps a day is a popular fitness goal for millions of people.
But a less time-consuming alternative may be more effective when it comes to weight loss, if new research is to be believed.
A study shows that building “micro walks” into your day can help you burn more calories than plodding along steadily.
Italian scientists, who monitored the movements of ten healthy adults, found that walking for periods of ten to thirty seconds required up to 60 percent more energy than covering the same distance in one go.
The results showed that ‘breaking up sedentary time with short walks’ could ‘significantly increase daily energy expenditure and improve health’, the experts claimed.
Italian scientists, who monitored the movements of ten healthy adults, found that walking for periods of ten to thirty seconds required up to 60 percent more energy than covering the same distance in one go.
Your browser does not support iframes.
Francesco Luciano, an expert in physiology at the University of Milan and lead author of the study, said: ‘When we walk for shorter periods, we use more energy and consume more oxygen to cover the same distance.
‘We found that starting from rest consumes a significant amount of oxygen just to start walking.
“It’s like having a car that uses more fuel in the first few kilometers than later.”
In the study, researchers followed the volunteers as they trained on a stair climber and a treadmill.
The exercises include three different speeds with periods ranging from 10 seconds to four minutes.
Scientists then recorded how much oxygen each person consumed and calculated the metabolic demands of each walk.
They found that it took more energy to get going and warm up the body at the beginning of each walk than later in the exercise, when the body was already moving.
Writing in the diary Proceedings of the Royal Society Bthey added: ‘The message relates to our daily lives: wherever possible we should break up periods of sitting by taking a few steps.’
The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that adults do at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise per week – or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity exercise.
It is estimated that a sedentary lifestyle in Britain, where Britons spend their working hours at their desks and then take the train or car on the way home to sit in front of the TV, is estimated to kill thousands of people every year.
A 2019 estimate puts the annual death toll at 70,000 people per year, with the health problems costing the NHS £700 million annually to treat.
A 2018 U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study estimated that nearly one in ten (8.3 percent) of U.S. adult deaths were caused by physical inactivity.
The WHO estimates the annual global death toll from physical inactivity at around 2 million per year, putting it in the running to be among the top 10 leading causes of global death and disability.
Physical inactivity has long been linked to health problems such as cardiovascular disease, but it also contributes to health problems such as obesity, which in itself is linked to an increased risk of type 2 diabetes and some cancers.
Cardiovascular disease is usually associated with the buildup of fatty deposits in the blood vessels, which can lead to dangerous blockages that can cause a heart attack or stroke.
Stokes is considered one of the leading causes of death and disability in Britain, killing around 38,000 people every year and disabling many more.