All in your stride: Scientists give a step by step guide to the walking method that burns the most calories

Getting 10,000 steps a day is a popular fitness goal for millions of people.

But a less time-consuming alternative could be effective when it comes to losing weight, experts believe.

Research shows that walking with an uneven stride can help burn more calories than steps of consistent size.

American scientists, who monitored the movements of 18 healthy adults, found that for every 1 percent increase in step variability, there was a 0.7 percent increase in energy expenditure.

The results showed that uneven steps “play a modest, yet significant role” in the metabolic cost of walking, the experts claimed.

Research shows that walking with an uneven stride can help burn more calories than steps of consistent size. American scientists, who monitored the movements of 18 healthy adults, found that for every 1 percent increase in step variability, there was a 0.7 percent increase in energy expenditure

The team did not measure the calories the participants burned.

However, study co-author Adam Grimmitt, an expert in exercise physiology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, said: ‘I think it would be fair to assume that more frequent and greater variations in stride length would increase your metabolic rate while walking. .’

During the study, the volunteers – 24 years old and weighing an average of 70.5 kg – were told to walk normally on a treadmill for five minutes.

A motion capture system recorded their average stride length at a typical speed of 1.2 meters per second.

They then manipulated their steps during a second five-minute treadmill walk by turning it on where they wanted the participants to step.

Positions were varied to five and ten percent shorter and longer than the average stride length.

All volunteers were also equipped with a mouthpiece that measured the rate of carbon dioxide production. This increases during exercise.

The findings, published on the pre-print website, bioRxivAccording to researchers, when people have to work to maintain their stability from a short step to a long step, or vice versa, it can increase muscle contraction and subsequently metabolic costs.

“Our data suggest that a 2.7 percent increase in step length variability would increase the metabolic cost of walking by 1.7 percent,” she added.

‘Step length variability plays a modest, albeit significant, role in the metabolic costs of walking.’

The findings could be most relevant for older adults, especially those with neurological conditions, as they walk with “greater step length variability,” they also said.

However, researchers acknowledged that changing length at 5 percent intervals is “different from real-world gait variability.”

Participants “still struggled to maintain accuracy” when changing their stride length without additional feedback, she added.

‘Future studies should quantify the accuracy of foot placement and muscle activity over comparable virtual projections.’