We tried running for a week to see if it burned more calories than walking. Here’s what we found.

One day my friend Jeff was carrying a 35 pound backpack to work. Since he spends most of the day on his feet, I asked him why he needed the extra weight. "Shake," he said. "My buddy and I were having a military-style game," I asked my confused brother, a retired colonel. He told me that as part of his military training, he had to carry 35 pounds of equipment on a 12-mile march.

Now, running has become a new sports trend. I have seen people wearing weighted vests exercising on hiking trails and sidewalks. Some websites claim that you will burn more calories than walking at the same speed. This makes sense, since walking around the gym with something heavy in your hands requires more effort.

However, I haven’t found much research on calorie burn during exercise, other than 2022 Articles An ergonomic study found that men burned more calories when they ran on a treadmill at an incline of zero or 10 percent. Women burned more calories only when the treadmill was inclined 10 percent. So I used this study to test my own off-road abilities.

There are several companies selling specially designed backpacks and weighted vests, but I don’t want to invest $100 if it’s not a great workout. I brought a small backpack that could hold dumbbells and some hand towels. The study mentioned above used a 14-pound women’s vest, so I added a 15-pound dumbbell to the backpack. The towels didn’t fit as well as I’d hoped, but they were adequate so I didn’t feel the metal digging into my back.

I’ve carried large backpacks before, but my smaller one seems harder to carry on my back. Thankfully, I also attached straps to the front of the pack so that the pack would stay relatively stationary. To make the test fair, I ate the same thing every morning before working out. 20 minutes before I hit the treadmill, I drink a small protein shake with soy milk. I also make sure to exercise both days at the same time.

For the first 10 minutes, I set the treadmill to 3.0 mph and a 0.0% incline. I didn’t feel much of a difference in effort with the added weight, and I didn’t feel any difference in my muscle work. I also pay close attention to my posture because if I gain 15 pounds, any tilt in one direction will be more noticeable. I burned 29 calories in 10 minutes and my heart rate averaged 81 beats per minute. The 5% incline felt a bit difficult, but I’m not used to walking at the same pace on inclines either. Calorie burn was 47 and average heart rate was 96. (By the way, if you like the treadmill, here are some of the best workouts to try.)

The biggest difference is the 10% slope. I struggled to put one foot in front of the other, carrying the extra weight on my back. I’ve been thinking about my friend who hiked 500 miles across Spain’s Camino de Santiago while carrying a 10-pound backpack. I respect her even more when she hikes the Pyrenees. I was sweating badly and my heart rate went up to 130, which is an average of 122. I also burned 82 calories.

The next day, I performed the same treadmill test without the weighted backpack. I burned 4 fewer calories without the incline, 6 fewer calories with the 5% incline, and 19 fewer calories with the 10% incline. All in all, walking on a 10% incline burns 30% more calories than regular walking on the same incline.

Over the next two days, I did a two-mile road test to see if there was any difference. Note that I live in an area with very flat roads, so I wasn’t able to test the truck on any hills. I tried to maintain the same effort both days, but without a weighted pack, I ended up doing two miles at two-minute pace. This may explain the 3-calorie difference in training. My heart rate was relatively the same and I took one less step per minute wearing the weighted backpack.

If you want to burn more calories, you can try running, but know that you probably won’t get any extra benefits unless you’re going up and down hills. I think you’ll build more muscle this way too. Bending over has definitely helped my posture as I do notice when I start to slouch. Of course, if you’re training for a 12-mile military drag race or the Camino de Santiago in Spain, a drag race might also be useful.