“If you’re trying to lose weight and lose fat, the answer is a run, because of the caloric expenditure,” says Cristina Del Toro Badessa, MD, wellness physician and director at tktk Artisan Beaut.
In the study, incline walking burned about 22 percent more calories from fat than running did. But the subjects only ran for 23 minutes, which is 25 percent less time than they spent incline walking. So, with a little back-of-the-napkin math, we can see that running would actually utilize about the same amount of fat as incline walking over the same period of time (while also burning roughly 25 percent more total calories).
“If you had one person walking consistently to lose fat and you had another person running consistently to lose fat, the individual that is burning more calories is going to see more results, because at the end of the day this all usually comes down to calories in versus calories out,” says Ghafari. In this case, that person would be the runner.
Run or walk, if you are so inclined
If there’s a positive headline to take away from this incline walking vs running study, it should be that people who are unable to run have another effective, research-backed way to burn fat.
“Incline walking is easier on the joints [than running], and it’s just something you’re probably more likely to do,” Dr. Del Toro Badessa says.
“As a coach and nutrition educator, I love 12-3-30 for certain goals and populations,” says Ghafari. “For those on GLP-1s, those returning from injury, or people building aerobic capacity, incline walking builds strong metabolic foundations without jacking up joint strain.”
The research is also a reminder to runners that you can adjust the pace of your runs to achieve different goals. For example, you could get the exact same fat-burning effect from running as you would from the 12-3-30 workout, simply by training with a heart-rate monitor and keeping yourself in zone two.