My guilty pleasure is Quora, which I dip into if a question intrigues me. Sometimes I “archive” the more interesting topics here.
“It said on Google that one must walk/run 5 miles a day in order to lose weight. That can’t be true, is it?“
Statements this simple are never true, but this kind of statement persists because it has a grain of truth. People who do, in fact, exercise at that level find it relatively easy to manage their weight, but it’s important to note that the exercise is almost never (well, never, but one feels the need to say “almost” just in case) the only action they are taking that supports weight management. As an aside, an actual board-certified internal medicine doctor told me in the 1980s that jogging 3 miles a day would make the pounds “melt away,” so I have to chuckle a bit at the update to “walk/run” and “5 miles.”
One of the problems with “walk/run 5 miles a day in order to lose weight” as stated, of course, is that it makes it sound like that is a transitional condition, achievable by one activity: you walk/run enough, you lose weight, you’re done. But it’s really describing a healthy level of daily exercise, although in a clumsy way that can use a lot of improvement. For example, bodies respond better to a mix of exercise – some harder, most easier – and regular strength training helps support joint health, balance, and resilience and is associated with healthier, independent living into old age.
So let’s read it as “people who routinely exercise about an hour a day find it easier to manage their weight the way they’d like to – and do other things, too, like succeed in school and work and enjoy their social interactions more.” At a fast walking pace, 5 miles takes about 75 minutes; at a jogging pace, about an hour (5 mph is the speed at which people generally find it more efficient to jog rather than use a walking gait). Also, that advice meshes nicely with the famous “10,000 steps a day” recommendation, which grew out of a visual pun on the name of pedometer product sold in Japan years ago.
There’s nothing wrong with this benchmark of exercise, but it doesn’t have to be exactly 10,000, and it doesn’t have to be walking/running – regular daily activity can be a mix of lots of activities, and as noted above, should include some resistance exercise, too, like lifting weights or body weight calisthenics (pushups, pull-ups, etc). Also it probably shouldn’t be daily running – your body works best with a mix of some intense (higher heart rate) exercise and a lot of lower-intensity exercise; otherwise you can quickly overtax your recovery capacity. For many athletes in competition, who can’t afford an unplanned break due to injury or exhaustion, that ratio is 20% high-intensity, 80% lower intensity. So let’s say, in the prescription above, 2 days of running and 5 of walking for a good balance. Plus, of course, some strength workouts work mixed in.
But that exercise, that calorie burn, is the tip of the iceberg of exercise benefit. People get LOTS of health benefits from an hour a day of exercise, including just plain finding themselves to be in a better mood more often. People who exercise at that level often find that all kinds of choices they want to make are easier – it is easier to get to sleep at night, sleep is more restful, and so it is easier to pay attention to things during the day, and it is easier to make deliberate choices about healthy eating rather than just grabbing something because it’s front of them or they need a treat. When people feel better they usually do more of the things they want to do.
So, a bit like “eat less, move more,” “walk/run 5 miles a day in order to lose weight” is not false, but there is so much more to it to make it work well.