The hype versus the reality

I’m doing some rethinking of my blog at the moment. I enjoy the sustainability posts but I do miss my other science posts. Thinking about ways to do both and not overload myself.

So today I’m going to post about walking. Specifically, walking after eating. If your feed is anything like mine, you’ve been seeing posts about how walking after a meal is better for your metabolism than walking at other points. The common information on this seems to focus mostly on just the health benefits of walking with the argument that 10 minutes three times a day might be easier to fit in than 30 minutes. But there is one paper that is commonly cited by Hijikata and Yamada from 2011.

I don’t know how this paper was published. Right off the bat, the author says that there were two participants, the author and one participant. Two? In a health study? Absolutely not. Cool, two people found that walking briskly for 30 minutes (not 10) right after meals helped them lose weight. This is not significant. This does not mean we should all be setting down our forks and tying on our shoes.

Is there any research that does support walking after a meal? Yes. It is focused on controlling blood sugar. Walking immediately after eating helps control blood glucose levels. The effects are greater with post-meal walking compared to pre-meal, inactivity, and waiting a long period before walking.

What’s the scoop then? Walking after a meal can be good, especially for people with type I or type II diabetes. It is not a magic bullet for weight loss. However, the benefits of moving more including walking are significant. Just don’t worry about the timing and do it when you’re most likely to get it done.