3 ms·
It's not how much energy is burned in your muscles, it's how much energy is burned in your brain. Walking at any speed requires more mental processing than you'
by goodside 14y ago
It's not how much energy is burned in your muscles, it's how much energy is burned in your brain. Walking at any speed requires more mental processing than you'd expect, just to make sure you don't trip on your own feet. E.g., here's a study showing that even very slow walking (1.77km/hr) prevents you from typing quickly on a cell phone: http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1085798 http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1085798
- raverbashing 14y agoI'm not questioning the 'exercise makes it harder to do some tasks', as your example shows, this is pretty much a given. But it's not so much about calories, it's about brain workload, walking requires a mental effort that subtracts from whatever else you're doing at the same time. More glucose won't help. And if typing is difficult, what to say of activities requiring fine motor control, like drawing. They're almost impossible! Not to mention the insulin/glucagon system controls blood sugar very precisely, you'll rarely have a lack of glucose in the sugar unless you really exercised a lot
- Cthulhu_ 14y ago> E.g., here's a study showing that even very slow walking (1.77km/hr) prevents you from typing quickly on a cell phone Isn't that because you're looking at a screen and can't see where you're going? :p I would count that as a definite factor (not having read the study), but, I can imagine that even without the screen, people walk slower when typing, as concentrating on the words is distracting a faster walk.