Walking vs running: which is better for weight loss and health?

Walking and running are the same movement at different speeds, and both are good for you. The real differences are how much energy each takes, how much time you need, and which one you will actually keep doing.

The short answer

Running burns more energy, both per mile and per hour, and in a large six-year study runners kept more weight off than walkers. For blood pressure, cholesterol and diabetes, walking did as well as running when people spent the same energy, which means walking further or for longer. If you enjoy running and your body copes with it, it gets more done in less time. If you don’t, walking more gets you most of the same health benefits.

Which burns more calories?

Running, by a clear margin, even for the same distance. In a study that measured 24 people covering 1,600 m both ways (Hall and colleagues, 2004), running took about 480 kJ, roughly 115 calories, and walking about 340 kJ, roughly 81 calories, on both a treadmill and a track. That is about 40% more for running the same mile. The common idea that a mile costs the same however you cover it does not hold up.

Per hour the gap is bigger, because running also covers more ground in the time. Our calories per mile page has walking figures by body weight.

Which is better for weight loss?

The largest comparison followed 15,237 walkers and 32,216 runners for about six years (Williams, 2013). Both groups who did more exercise gained less weight or lost more. But for the same amount of energy spent, the link with lower weight was stronger for running than for walking in men and in heavier women. In short, running seemed to do more for weight than its extra calories alone would explain.

Two cautions. The study used questionnaires, not measured exercise, and it followed people rather than assigning them to walk or run. And for weight, what you eat matters as much as how you move: our guide to how many steps a day to lose weight goes into why calorie maths alone overpromises.

Which is better for your heart?

Here walking holds its own. The same research group compared 33,060 runners and 15,945 walkers over about six years (Williams and Thompson, 2013). When walkers and runners spent the same amount of energy, they had similar drops in the risk of high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes, and possibly heart disease. Walking just needs more time to spend that energy.

That fits the wider step research. A 2025 review of daily steps (Ding and colleagues) found 7,000 steps a day, against 2,000, went with a 47% lower risk of dying during the studies and lower risks of heart disease, type 2 diabetes and dementia.

Walking, running or both?

• Short on time: running gets more energy spent per minute.
• New to exercise, heavier, or coming back from injury: walking is easier to start and to keep up, and you can build the distance before adding speed.
• Running hurts: walking lets you keep the habit going while you find out why.
• Want both: walk-run intervals, such as a minute of jogging every few minutes of walking, are an easy middle ground.

The best choice is the one you will still be doing next month.

A goal for every walk

Most of us know we should walk more and still skip it, because “go for a walk” has no finish line. reTrek gives you one: pick a famous route, like the Camino de Santiago or the Inca Trail, and every walk moves you further along it, with a short film about the place waiting at each milestone. You stop looking for a spare moment to walk and start walking to reach the next milestone.

Everest Base Camp is free. Get reTrek.