Does Walking Really Count As Cardio?
Walking is an easy way to exercise during the day and also has mental health benefits. I am one of many people who have added daily walks to their routine during the pandemic, and they have improved my life so much that I am not going to stop. But is walking enough for your body to count as cardio?
The answer is complex. In some ways, walking is considered cardio: it burns calories, raises your heart rate, and counts towards the exercise we should all do every week. But, on the other hand, it does not improve your cardio shape as running or intense aerobic exercise. If you want to improve your endurance, you have to do more than just walk.
How to burn calories when walking and running
Running burns more calories than walking per unit of time, but both are similar when you consider distance.
A rule of thumb is that you burn about 100 calories per mile regardless of whether you run or walk, but in reality, burning calories depends on your body size (you burn more calories if you are more) and how fast you run or walk. When you walk, your calorie count is slightly lower per mile. This calculator from Runtastic (metric, sorry) estimates that a 150 pound person will burn 82 calories in a mile, or 115 calories in a run.
The biggest difference is in calories per hour: for the same 150-pound person, walking burns 261 calories per hour and running burns 714 calories. For both calculations, I used 20 minute walker mile (3 mph) examples. and a 10 minute mile (6 mph) for a runner. The faster you walk, the more calories you burn.
So if you walk or run to burn calories, running will burn more calories in half the time. But if you prefer to go out and have free time, both will do the job.
Walking is not a substitute for vigorous cardio
Each level of exercise intensity has its own benefits. Walking is what I consider to be very light cardio, running is more of a medium intensity exercise, and high intensity cardio is a bit like sprinting or running. These are all good for you, although depending on your goals, you may not need to complete all of them.
For example, if you want to run fast, you will need a lot of medium cardio (slow running) and a few higher intensity exercises (speed work); If you want to improve your endurance, as measured by metrics like VO2max , you should definitely work at that intensity.
On the other hand, if you’re just trying to get some movement in your life and don’t care about getting better at it, lower intensity exercise like walking may be enough.
According to major health organizations (including the CDC, WHO, and AHA), we should all get at least 150 minutes per week of “moderate” exercise or 75 minutes of “vigorous” exercise. You can mix and match, believing that every minute of vigorous exercise counts for double.
So where does walking fall within this recommendation? Well, the American Heart Association defines moderate exercise as one where your heart rate is 50-70% of your maximum and vigorous exercise is 70-85% of your maximum. Walking will generally be moderate, so you will need to do twice as much in minutes, as if you were doing more intense cardio.
A walk doesn’t have to mean an easy walk
The difference between walking and running is mechanical: if you always have at least one foot on the ground, you are walking. If, instead, your gait bounces slightly as you move from foot to foot, then you are running. (Running is just slow running.)
It is often easier to maintain a higher intensity (and higher heart rate) by jogging than by walking, but this is not always the case. If you are climbing a mountain, your heart rate can easily fall into the “alert” zone. And if you are an efficient enough runner, you may be able to jog slowly and keep your heart rate at a “moderate” level.
When planning your workout, think about intensity: measure your heart rate if you are not sure where you will fall; you can use a tracker like Fitbit or Apple Watch for this, but you can also just place two fingers on the side of your neck and count your heart rate beats. If your maximum heart rate is 200 and you are counting 150 beats per minute, that means that your heart rate is 75% of your maximum.
It may be that walking gives you a higher heart rate than you thought – this is quite possible if you are a beginner or if you are traveling in hilly areas while walking. If you want a harder cardio workout, you can walk faster or you can choose a different type of exercise, such as cycling or dancing, that increase your heart rate. But you can go for an easy walk if that’s all you aspire to.