Which is best; walk or cycle commute

jimh_123

Hi, which out of these commutes to my work is doing me the best:
Cycle: 3.5m which takes me about 20mins
or
Walk: 2.7m which takes me about 46mins

supersonic

Depends what you mean by best! Fitness? Muscle gain? Energy consumed?

jimh_123

Suppose what I mean by best is fitness. Trying to loose a bit of weight if that helps. I don't really feel out of breath when I cycle but feel that I've done a bit after the walk. I know both aren't extreme in a workout sense, so hence just wondering which would help me loose a bit of weight if done every day.

YeehaaMcgee

Try doing the bike commute, but really hammer it - use it as a kind of high intensity interval training session.

GeeSpot

Well.Walking 10 km will burn more calories than biking 10 km. Biking is still good exercise, but you will need to go further than you would just walking to have an equivalent calorie expenditure. But cycling is more of a cardio workout than just walking, so in the same amount of time, you would burn more calories biking than walking.

anthdci

walking using more calories than cycling minute for minute. But I think cycling is more enjoyable so you want to do it more, also cycling is low impact so much better for your joints.

YeehaaMcgee

anthdci wrote:

walking using more calories than cycling minute for minute.

Are you sure about that? It's just that it goes against what I've read about it in the past.

deveng

YeehaaMcgee wrote:

anthdci wrote:

walking using more calories than cycling minute for minute.

Are you sure about that? It's just that it goes against what I've read about it in the past.

I don't think it burns more minute for minute, but it does burn more mile for mile. Cycling could be sprinting at 40mph or gently rolling along at 8mph, whereas walking implies reasonably low effort, so it's not a fair comparison.

The engineer in me says that work done is force*distance, so if you travel the same distance, the one that requires the most effort to do it (so the least efficient) will burn more calories. But bodies don't work the same as cars, so it's probably much more complicated than I have made it out to be.

Kaz_S

How about jogging the 2.7 miles - you could even do it in intervals.. that will help fitness and loosing weight.

cooldad

Run

prawny

Walk or Run. Its just over a mile to the train station from my house that I used to ride but started walking to shift a bit of extra weight.

Power walking ftw!