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Short people burn more calories walking

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Administrator. Graeme
Staff member
Take that, Stretch! Short people burn more calories walking
They use more energy to cover the same distance as people with longer legs, study finds
Scientists have come up with a new equation to determine how much energy people actually use while walking.

While previous work has conjured many ways to measure the energy cost of walking, the new equation is among the first to account for the impact of body size, taking into account individuals' height and weight.


The equation has many possible applications. It could be used to design pedometers that, in addition to distance walked, provide an estimate of calories burned, taking into account a person's body size. The military may also find the equation handy, possibly using it to calculate how much energy soldiers expend — and thus how many calories they will need — while carrying different loads, said study researcher Peter Weyand, of Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

The findings are published today (Nov. 12) in the Journal of Experimental Biology.

Why height and weight matter
Scientists knew that shorter people, including children, use up more energy per pound of their body mass when walking than taller people, but they didn't know why.

To find out, Weyand and his colleagues had 48 subjects, ages 5 to 32, walk on a treadmill at speeds varying from 0.9 miles per hour (0.4 meters per second) to 4.3 miles per hour (1.9 meters per second). The subjects ranged in weight from 35 to 195 pounds (15.9 to 88.7 kilograms), and in height from 3.5 to 6 feet (1.1 to 1.8 meters). The researchers measured how much oxygen the subjects used to calculate their metabolic rate. They also examined they way each subject walked, including their stride length and duration.
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The results showed that everyone used about the same amount of energy for each stride 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 a given distance.

In other words, tall people are more economical walkers because they can take bigger steps.

For instance, someone who is 5 feet tall and weighs 100 pounds burns 0.44 calories per pound of their body mass (49 calories total) to walk one mile, while someone who is 6 feet tall and weighs 190 pounds burns 0.37 calories per pound of their body mass (about 71 calories total) to walk the same distance, Weyand said.

So although taller people are more economical walkers and burn fewer calories on a per pound basis, they do tend to burn more calories. This is because they are generally supporting a greater mass against gravity, which requires more energy, Weyand said.

The equation is based on the walking speed that was most economical for the subjects, it does not accurately estimate calories burned by people walking very fast or slow.

Kids and adults walk the same
The study is also the first to show that people, young and old, do not differ in their gait.

"Regardless of your height, weight and age, people, after they reach 5 years of age, all walk in the same way," Weyand said.

This finding was contrary to earlier hypotheses which proposed that younger people burn more calories when they walk because of some factor of development.

Weyand's study has implications for the study of human evolution. Some evolutionary biologists have proposed that humans started to walk upright because the posture is a more energy efficient way of walking. The new equation could provide better estimates of the energy costs of walking for early hominids, Weyand said, to see if the change in posture did indeed provide the supposed benefits.

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Short people burn more calories walking - Health - Fitness - msnbc.com
 
Heavier people move more mass
Shorter people take more steps

Was not a very enlightening study since a child should have been able to work that out.
 
these sorts of studies crack me up , i can't believe people actually get funding to pull off these crap studies
 
All things being equal, yeah, a shorter person would have more trouble travelling the same distance at the same speed as a taller person.

However, heavier people burn more calories while walking the same speed and distance than someone lighter than them, and often taller people are heavier than lighter people.
 
What about wind resistance?
Taller/bigger people will have to exert more force to overcome extra wind resistance.
Since the study was done on a treadmill, it did not account for this.
 
What about wind resistance?
Taller/bigger people will have to exert more force to overcome extra wind resistance.
Since the study was done on a treadmill, it did not account for this.

lmfaoooooo

omigod...THIS is the quote of the day and made me laugh :D

I demand a new study, with the wind factor variable included please. I'm sure there's other variables that have also not been included.........let me think on it!

I'm almost 5'9, so I'm screwed. Good thing I'm still heavier than the average female, therefore burn more calories to travel the same distance = win for me, for now. :cool:
 
Am currently sitting on my balcony and burning calories as my hair is being whipped around my head (is naturally occurring wind as beneficial as fan forced air?)

Perhaps a new study on this also.....:D
 
I can't believe how people get research grants for this kind of sh11111te.

I remember how hard grants were to fill out and what hoops of fire I had to jump through with good, solid science research that mattered, at stake. only to fail, because it wasn't "flavour of the day".

How does this rubbish get to be flavour of the day?

*FACE PALM*
 
I was burning good calories when I was 175 kgs with a 10kg vest and a pair of 10 kg dumbells making it a 195 kg walk for 4-6 hours a day in the office.

Who here likes using pedometers? / finds them accurate/semi-accurate?
 
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