Which is best; walk or cycle commute

jimh_123
jimh_123 Posts: 66
edited November 2012 in Health, fitness & training
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

Comments

  • supersonic
    supersonic Posts: 82,708
    Depends what you mean by best! Fitness? Muscle gain? Energy consumed?
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  • jimh_123
    jimh_123 Posts: 66
    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
    YeehaaMcgee Posts: 5,740
    Try doing the bike commute, but really hammer it - use it as a kind of high intensity interval training session.
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  • GeeSpot
    GeeSpot Posts: 17
    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
    anthdci Posts: 543
    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
    YeehaaMcgee Posts: 5,740
    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.
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  • deveng
    deveng Posts: 132
    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.
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  • Kaz_S
    Kaz_S Posts: 22
    How about jogging the 2.7 miles - you could even do it in intervals.. that will help fitness and loosing weight.
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  • cooldad
    cooldad Posts: 32,599
    Run
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  • prawny
    prawny Posts: 5,439
    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!
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