As an adolescent, I was a victim of this common misconception that brisk walking immediately post meal helps burn calories. It’s quite natural to think that once we eat a meal and walk it out quickly, it will burn the calories that we just consumed. But hey! For that food to get converted into calories it requires a long process, which is called nothing but digestion. Unless and until we don’t let the food to get digested thoroughly, are we going to burn the calories? Obviously not!
Brisk walking post meal is a not a very good idea. It may cause acid reflux, ingestion or stomach upset. The reason is very simple- after the meal, our digestion process is all ready to go. Digestive juices are released in the stomach and intestine. This is the time when the stomach and intestine need most blood supply to carry on this process smoothly. Hence, the blood flow needs to be directed to this area for better digestion. If we perform any vigorous activity as simple as brisk walking after the meal, the blood circulation gets directed to our extremities which compromises the blood flow to the core region of the body, thus hampering the digestive processes.
Working out especially post dinner not only affects our digestion but may also postpone our sleep time. Workouts are a stress buster. Our body experiences an endorphin rush (feel good factor) after a nice cardio/strengthening session. Once we are on an endorphin high, we feel extremely elated and energized which tends to delay our sleep.
So what’s best for us? It’s always best to go for a brisk walk or any other workout before the meal (30 minutes prior or so). It exhausts our body’s energy stores which is then all set to fill up the stores again with a good meal. This reduces the chances of fat conversion during the meal as whatever we consume is utilized by the body cells for energy which leaves least for fat storage. In short, a pre meal workout fires up our body’s metabolism which therefore ensures better burn up of calories after we consume and digest the meal.
A similar point was proven by a 2006 study published in “Applied Physiology, Nutrition and Metabolism,” which says that people who walked prior to putting any food in their stomach and who walked hard enough to perspire burnt more fat than those who walked after eating.
Thus, it’s quite clear that in order to reap most benefits of brisk walking or other workouts, we need to schedule it prior to our meal. However, we can certainly go for a leisurely walk post meal, but again, not immediately. We can go after a 45 minutes gap. That is just to get over the bloat of eating way too much or to give your muscles a good stretch and it’s anytime a better option than promoting fat deposition by lying on the sofa watching TV. But remember, this should be a short 10-15 minute walk and not a long one.
Now that we have blown away the misconceptions, let’s implement the right thing and experience the change! Let’s Rock the pre-meal walk!
Nice post Shimpli. Ofcourse this will clear the misconception of many about brisk walk. Great going, all the best.
Thanks a lot Mukesh
Good advice Ms. Patil. Many thanks. God bless you. Amen.
Abdulrehman Premji from Canada.
Very useful information, especially in this summer season when everyone has so much time before sleep.
Thank you Rohit 🙂
Good and very useful information
Thanks Rahul 🙂
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Very informative article.
Very informative and well explained
You could easily cut the post down by at least 50% without loosing Anything!
The way it is now, it’s tiring.
Well said
Very useful info….super.plz provide link for other articles..
Well said. May I add that brisk walking on empty stomach burns the fat that could not have been accessed otherwise. leading to better insulin sensitivity. And if done in cycles may remove the stubborn visceral fat and the intramyocellular fat that is associated with many chronic illnesses like diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
a study published in ncbi.nlm.nih.org argues that brisk walking right after a meal helps in weight reduction in subjects who do not have problems like stomach ache or fatigue or discomfort experienced during a walk after meal. The authors are Japanese and claim to have successfully implemented in other patients as well. seems to be contradictory with your view.
please refer– https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-power-rest/201307/when-walk-try-after-meals
Nice information. Generally people think that after food walking is better but now it’s clear.
You helped my wife win the case against me ! Not that she needs any help for such victories …
Thanks for the info…. It helped a lot to me… It cleared my misconception…. Otherwise I could have kept doing brisk walking.
Let me start do walking before dinner and update real tim
You cleared it up for me!
When the girls in the office say, hurry up and eat so we can go for a walk, I turn them on to your article…
Thank You!
Thank you so much! I always go for my 2-3 mile walks before meals. I once tried it after I ate and I was miserable. My stomach was complaining and so were my legs. Your insight made me understand that my stomach and legs were fighting for the blood supply.
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Can any one tell me correct method of walking as i am walking after dinner immediately since i started im suffering from acidic stomach bloating..
Isn’t this interesting — I thought I agree with this article, as it makes sense; along comes another claiming the opposite 🙁 https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-power-rest/201307/when-walk-try-after-meals
Grrat explaination
You have cleared the concept very nicely
Thankful very much.
nice to hear some sencible talk
This is absolutely wrong. Before all your friends wrote how wonderful you are they should have googled. Lots of research saying a brisk walk after a meal burns more calories than one later. And exercise fasted isn’t what you wrote either. Ridiculous advice.
Very useful information.
I always walk before my meals 95 o/o of the time and take a short walk after dinner. I make good eating choices and drink plenty of lemon water .
Feeling great , but nothing I do gets my thighs down, I have thunder thighs . I’m still working on them ?, been walking faithfully for 5 years. I’m 67 and weigh 147.
YOU HAVE ANSWERED MY QUESTION
VERY INFORMATIVE ARTICLE
Goid article! Thank you. What about walking after eating to prevent blood sugar spikes right after a meal!True or false?
Thanx for sharing such a important info…
Very useful information and this article has removed my misconception and set in the right time for walking
thanks
.
Very useful info here. I have been going for jogging/brisk walking right after my meals and i have lost about 80kgs from 140kgs. But i’ve lost my sleep and i get really tired. I’ve lost concentration i think due to sleep. I was diabetic but no longer now. I’ll try you advise from tomorrow. Thanks a lot.
Can you share your email as i need advise about my mother and wife.
I started walking right after dinner for 1 hour since 2008. After 1 year I started feeling symptomps of gas, acidity, heaviness in stomach, leg pain and legs becoming thin. Nowadays I am walking 45 minutes just after dinner but from past 2 months back I am feeling extreme fatigue in legs, indigestion and spider veins in feets. The day when I don’t walk, I feel very much fresh next day. Earlier also I have read that we should walk at least half to 1 hour after having a meal. Today, after reading your article, I think I have found my solution. Perhaps that was the reason behind feeling tired after walk and spider veins. I will try it from today itself.
Superb article. That explains why I have been suffering bloating and acidity issues and now when I think of it, it started from the very day I started brisk walking right after dinner 😣. Thank you.
I loved this post! I read your blog fairly often and your always coming out
with some great stuff.. I shared this on my FaceBook and my followers
loved it, keep up the great work ! 🙂