Who doesn’t want to get in better shape and live a longer and healthier life? If you’re considering options for losing weight you may have run across some conflicting information. That’s what’s leading you to question is walking or running better for weight loss. If that sounds like you, we’re going to take a closer look at what you need to know.
Setting Yourself Up For Success
It’s not just about walking or running for fat loss, however. It’s also about doing other things to help your health. Having a health insurance policy for diabetic patients or others with pre-existing or chronic conditions can be a good start, but you’ll also need to think about things like sleep, strength training, and even rest.
You’ll also want to consider things like tracking macros and even ditching the scale in general. The scale will tell you about your weight, but that’s not always the important thing. Even if you’re looking to lose fat, the scale will tell you what you’re losing all around, which could include muscle. So focus on looking and feeling better rather than just dropping pounds. It’s not just about is running or walking better for fat loss after all.
When you combine moving at least 8,000 steps per day with getting 8 hours of sleep and taking a couple days off to rest, you’re going to see even bigger results, even faster. And that means you’ll lose weight faster. If that’s your goal, then that means you should definitely be moving frequently to help get the body you want.
With the help of Premier PMI to keep you on track with doctors’ appointments and other medical care, you can get in the shape that you want and start feeling better. And walking is an important component to that.
Running for Fat Loss
Running is a great way to burn calories and lose weight because it gets your heart rate up. It can help you get more active, build your endurance, and a whole lot more. In fact, running helps with cardiovascular health, bone health, stress relief, cognitive function, energy, body composition, and sleep quality. It also helps reduce feelings of anxiety and depression, and chronic disease.
Specifically, running has been found to lower all causes of mortality by 25-30%. And even at only one time per week it can have this impact. So, you’re not just burning calories and burning fat, you’re actually going to improve your overall health at the same time.
Walking for Fat Loss
What about walking? Well, walking also burns calories, though if you’re looking at walking for one minute versus running for one minute it’s going to fall behind. Walking also gives you added strength in your legs, improves your balance, reduces overall joint stiffness, lowers blood pressure, reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease, and improves your heart function. It can help relieve stress and anxiety and improve your overall sense of well-being.
It will help you feel better all-around and can even reduce your risk of certain types of cancer. So again, you’re not just burning fat, you’re also going to help your general health and wellbeing.
Benefits of Both
By reading through the information above you’ve probably already noticed that there are some good benefits to both walking and running. And there are a lot of similarities in the benefits as well. Another one of the aspects of walking and running for weight loss? Friendship.
You can spend time with friends or join a running or walking club that will let you meet new people who share your interest. And having people to enjoy the activity with means that you’re more likely to continue doing it. That means you have an even opportunity to burn fat.
Which is Better?
So is running or walking better for weight loss? The best answer is ‘whichever one you’re going to stick to,’ because if running is too hard on you and too tiring you’re likely to give it up at some point. But you might feel more comfortable walking. However, if you’re looking to burn fat and you’re willing to stick it out either way, let’s take a look at the benefits both ways.
Muscle Tissue
Running actually breaks down muscle tissue in your body and when you’re getting a little older that can be even more of a problem. In fact, any kind of intense cardio can be bad for muscle tissue. And you need that muscle tissue to help you burn more calories (and therefore fat).
Walking helps build up muscle without tearing down that muscle tissue, and that’s important because muscle burns fat. When you have more muscle in your body (and you’re not tearing it apart from running) it helps you burn more calories and more fat.
Cortisol Levels
Running also increases the level of cortisol in your body and cortisol is a stress hormone, which means that it’s not healthy for your body when it gets too high. It increases blood sugar, decreases your immune system, and can increase heart disease risk.
On the other hand, walking helps to lower cortisol because it lets your body return to normal cortisol levels much more quickly after your exercise. And it has a lower spike to your cortisol levels in the first place.
When it comes down to running or walking for fat loss you’ll find that walking really can make a difference. Running may give you a big boost at the start, but it can break down muscle tissue and increase the stress hormones in your body, which can actually be counterproductive.
As you get older, these two things can be bigger and bigger problems. But on the other hand, walking is going to help you burn calories and keep going without the harm to your muscle tissue and cortisol levels. That means you’re going to start burning calories and fat more consistently.
Keep Moving Forward
You can make a huge difference in your life, so why would you want to keep doing the same things over and over again? By swapping out running for walking, and getting the right insurance, you could be on your way to losing fat and more.
