If walking is part of your exercise routine, consider pausing occasionally to enjoy your surroundings, according to a new study.
Italian researchers discovered that brief breaks during a walk might boost your metabolism more effectively than walking the same distance continuously.
Lead author Francesco Luciano and his team highlight this point in their paper that using steady-state walking to estimate energy consumption “significantly underestimates energy expenditure” during short bursts of activity.
This finding is relevant not only for individuals aiming to burn more calories but also for those seeking to conserve energy.
The researchers mentioned that exercise routines involving short walking intervals are commonly used in treating and rehabilitating conditions such as obesity and stroke.
This information is particularly valuable for programs aimed at helping individuals maintain their weight while still benefiting from physical activity, such as those designed for treating eating disorders.
The team writes, “Understanding the cost of short bouts is crucial for tailoring [exercise programs], especially for people with low aerobic fitness and increased time to reach a metabolic steady state.”
The experiment are based on a relatively small sample of just 10 healthy participants—5 male and 5 female, all approximately 27 years old—so the results may not fully represent the general population.
In the study, each participant completed walking sessions on a stair climber for intervals of 10, 30, 60, 90, and 240 seconds. In a separate experiment, they repeated these intervals on a treadmill.
The research team measured the participants’ average oxygen consumption while they were at rest before the experiments began, and then again after each walking session. This allowed them to assess the changes in oxygen usage following the various walking bouts.
During the 30-second walking intervals, participants used 20–60 percent more oxygen than the typical estimates for steady-state walking, where the body becomes more efficient over time.
Since oxygen consumption is a key indicator of energy expenditure during exercise, the study suggests that the length of walking intervals could significantly impact calorie calculations, with shorter bursts potentially burning more calories than continuous walking.
For the 240-second intervals, the researchers measured oxygen intake at four different points during the walk to evaluate the effects of “steady-state” walking, which occurs when the metabolism adjusts to sustain a specific type of movement over a longer duration.
“Our findings show that the time-averaged oxygen uptake and metabolic cost are greater for shorter than longer bouts,” the researchers report.