For several years I have tried to drag my body out in the somewhat early morning, be it rain, snow, sun or cold (sounds like the mailman) and either I take to the pavement and walk my neighborhood when it's nice out or jump in my car and drive a short distance (this always seems a little wrong that I have to burn another gas to burn calories) and take one hour from my day to attempt to stay in some form of shape. It may not be the shape that the statistics would prefer but hey I am getting out. I usually walk around four miles.
Yesterday an article really caught my eye because the caption read "Take that, Stretch! Short people burn more calories walking". Well I thought to myself this looks like I may be doing something right. According to an article published in the Journal of Experimental Biology scientists have come up with a new equation (oh great) to determine how much energy people actually use while walking. I thought this could be rather interesting. My philosophy has been if I can manage to lap people that are significantly older than I am I must be doing pretty good. Especially according to them I am just "a kid".
In a nutshell they studied 48 people ranging from age 5 to 32 on a treadmill. Ranging in weight from 35 to 195 pounds and height of 3.5 to 6 foot tall. (Ok I fit in the weight but not the age range sadly).
The outcome was everyone used the same energy for each step they took, but because people with shorter legs take more steps to cover the same distance as people with longer legs, short people used more energy over distance.
Hey I have know that for years. I take twice as many steps as both my husband and my kids. So tall people are more economical walkers because they take bigger steps. The sad thing was when it came to calorie burn a person who is 5 foot tall (I am slightly taller) burns roughly 49 calories to walk one mile while a 6 foot tall person burns 71 calories to walk the same distance. Well that doesn't seem fair. But hey I guess somehow it must balance itself out because although tall people can reach the top shelf a short person can get in tiny spots that others can't.
I will continue to walk and wish that I was taller probably until I die. Hey maybe I will be reincarnated a 6.2 model..who is a speed walker..Ahhh I can dream...
1 comment:
Just think how skinny we would be if we were 6'2". It just boggles the mind, doesn't it?
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