If you walk to lose weight, you may be surprised to know that tweaking and twisting a little bit of your routine can actually get you better results. According to a new study, short bursts of walking can give your metabolism more of a workout than trekking the same distance without a break.

Researchers from Italy say while walking engages muscles in your arms, chest, back, abdomen, pelvis, and legs, it also gives a fair share of exercise to your brain as well. The classic 10,000 steps that you aim for daily can be worked out in such a way that you get the maximum out of the workout.

This study, conducted by the pathophysiologists at the University of Milan shows that not all steps are created equal.

According to the study, which was published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, using steady-state walking to calculate energy consumption can substantially underestimate energy expenditure for short bouts. It has implications not only for people who try to burn off more of their energy but also for those who would be trying to conserve it.

"Exercise programmes based on short walking bouts are used for the treatment and rehabilitation of several clinical conditions, including obesity and stroke," first author Francesco Luciano and colleagues explained in their published paper. "Understanding the cost of short bouts is crucial for tailoring (exercise programmes), especially for people with low aerobic fitness and increased time to reach a metabolic steady state," the team wrote.

According to this small study, just ten healthy participants were enlisted, which included five men and five women - all around 27 years of age, so the results may not be representative of a broader population.

Each participant walked on a stair climber for bouts of 10, 30, 60, 90, and 240 seconds, and in a separate experiment, walked those same bouts on a treadmill. The research team measured how much oxygen participants used, on average, when they were at rest before the experiments and then again after the bouts of walking.

For the 240-second bouts, they also measured oxygen intake four times during the walk to assess the effects of steady-state walking – which happens when the metabolism shifts to accommodate a particular kind of movement over a longer period of time. "Our findings show that the time-averaged oxygen uptake and metabolic cost are greater for shorter than longer bouts," said the researchers.

During 30-second bouts, the participants consumed 20–60 per cent more oxygen than the standard estimates for walking exercises, which are based on long and continuous walking, during which the body becomes more efficient.

Oxygen consumption is often used to measure how much energy is being used during exercise, which is why this study suggests that when it comes to calculating the calories burnt from walking, the duration of the stroll could make a huge difference.

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