Is a brisk walk as good as a run?

by Mary C. Weaver, CSCS on May 3, 2013

Is a brisk walk as good as a run?
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This one’s for the walkers: If you’ve ever felt bad because you can’t jog or just don’t feel like it, I have good news.

True, you can’t burn as many calories per minute walking as you can running—but you can get the same health benefits, according to some new research. It’ll just take a little bigger chunk out of your day.

Previous studies that looked at the benefits of walking and running used time, not distance, in their comparisons. That’s a bit stupid, as the average person can cover about three miles during an hour-long brisk walk but five or six miles (or more) in the same period of running.

It’s no wonder walking came out as less effective in the old studies, given that joggers ended up doing twice as much work.

All the same health advantages

In this new study, involving more than 33,000 runners and 15,000 walkers, scientists correlated energy expenditures (calorie cost) from walking and running with risk reductions for high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, diabetes, and coronary heart disease.

And although the intensity levels of those activities are very different, the upshot is [click to keep reading…]

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Squeeze more exercise into half the time

by Mary C. Weaver, CSCS on March 26, 2013

woman on exercise bike
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Quick—what’s the No. 1 reason you either don’t exercise or don’t log as many workouts as you’d like?

Most women I know will say “not enough time!”

I say it too. We’re all overscheduled, with so many more commitments than our calendars can hold.

But here’s yet another study (among many) suggesting that brief, intense exercise provides fabulous benefits.

OK, so maybe you’re not getting the 30 minutes, five days a week that major health organizations recommend. Can you squeeze in 75 minutes a week, warm-ups and cool-downs included? 

What you can accomplish in less than 2 hours a week

One of the advantages of exercise is the positive effect it has on blood-sugar levels.

Your muscles’ preferred fuel is glucose (blood sugar), so any form of muscular movement consumes glucose and thus reduces its level in your blood. When you exercise, your body is also able to use insulin more effectively, and that too results in greater “consumption” of blood glucose.

As you can imagine, this is great for diabetics. But it has positive implications for others too.

A study published in the December 2011 Journal of Applied Physiology looked at eight people with diabetes who used an exercise bike to perform 10 one-minute bouts of work at 90 percent of their maximal heart rate, with each bout followed by a minute of rest. That’s working very, very hard, and you can bet they were under medical supervision during these sessions.

They weren’t spring chickens either, with an average age of 63. Their average body mass index was 32, which is obese.

Just two weeks of this regime, three times weekly, resulted in [click to keep reading…]

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How to turn ‘diet failure’ into weight-loss success

March 25, 2013
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Send to Kindle“Past performance is no guarantee of future results.” That’s the boilerplate we see when we buy a mutual fund or other potentially risky investment. It serves as a warning, lest we think success is a sure thing. But what if we flipped things around and used those words to encourage ourselves? What if [...]

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Low-carb diet? Why your week 1 weight loss is meaningless

March 21, 2013
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Diet gurus love low-carb diets—and dieters love them—because going on one usually causes a dramatic loss of weight the first week. Notice that I didn’t say loss of fat. People get all excited about that first week’s weight loss of four, five, or six pounds or more. Well, there’s an easy explanation for [...]

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Do potatoes make you fat?

March 20, 2013
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Do potatoes make you fat? Well, they certainly can . . . the same way any food can: if you eat too much of it, you get fat. It’s true of potatoes just as it’s true of cupcakes, pizza, and any other food—healthy or unhealthy—that you could name. OK, I admit this article’s [...]

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Are you giving your scale too much power?

March 19, 2013
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How do you feel about the numbers you see on your bathroom scale? This is a loaded question, of course: I’m asking what emotional response you have to an objective fact, the amount you weigh at any given moment. I started thinking about this question after reading a fitness columnist’s exhortation not to [...]

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Kick metabolic syndrome to the curb with strength training

March 11, 2013
strength training protects against metabolic syndrome

Color me shocked: A recently published study, conducted with data gathered between 1999 and 2004, found that only about 6.3 percent of U.S. women over 20 reported lifting weights regularly. I don’t have any illusions about the prevalence of couch-potatoism. But because I’m talking about fitness all the time and hanging out in [...]

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Are you up for my free fat loss and fitness challenge?

March 11, 2013
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One-sixth of 2013 is already gone. Hard to believe, isn’t it? Now, I don’t know whether you’re feeling pleased or frustrated (or both) with the first two months of the year. But I have a challenge for you if you want to make the next six weeks truly memorable. On Dec. 2 I [...]

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The truth about menopause and weight gain

February 26, 2013
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Would you believe me if I said menopause is not responsible for weight gain? If you’re skeptical, keep reading . . . because it’s true. (And if you want some scientific validation for my claim, check out this link.) Yes, I know that somewhere around age 45 to 50, most women notice that [...]

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Defeat hunger with protein

February 20, 2013
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For me, the toughest part of caloric reduction is hunger. I simply can’t stand being hungry. I can turn away from French fries or Cheez-its (mmmmmm) or ice cream; I have no problem eating salad instead of cheeseburgers. But experience hunger? Like when I’m dying for something and it’s 4 p.m. and I’ve [...]

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