In today’s world, with all of us just sitting in front of the laptop for a desk job, or enjoying at home watching the phone or television, we all try to find easier ways to stay fit and mostly end up putting ourselves on diet plans.
But in order to stay fit, the best way is to consume more and burn more!
But how to burn those extra calories that you might have put in during the week at parties munching on snacks or enjoying lavish dinner at the restaurant?
Well, the best way is walking and running for at one hour a day. You can obviously use your treadmills if you are someone who doesn’t want to go out much or do not have much open space near you house.
Now, the question is does putting some extra weight on your feet like wearing a steel toe boot help you burn more calories faster?
There are articles which suggest that yes, wearing a steel toe boot will help you burn more calories simply because they add extra weight to the feet!
Imagine yourself running bare handed versus running with luggage. Which will be more comfortable?
Not only extra weight will limit your exercise time but also exhaust you faster for no good. Similarly, walking in steel toe boots will put extra weight on the feet and exhaust you more, make you sweat more, but will lessen the time of your walking which will not necessarily be an advantage on burning extra calories!
Studies have shown that walking in a treadmill for 6.3 +/- 0.3 km per hour with weights on the feet increases the oxygen uptake and heart rate to 29.0 +/- 0.7 ml.min -1.kg-1; 154.6 +/- 4.4 beats.min-1 than exercising with no weight at all where the oxygen uptake and heart rate is 26.6 +/- 0.7 ml.min-1.kg-1; 147.0 +/- 3.8 beats.min-1.
So, there is no evidence that walking in steel toe boots will help you burn more calories!
Walking in steel toe boots will burn more calories. Yes or No?
I will give you the positive as well as the negative points:
The positive points of walking in steel toe boots to burn more calories:
Steel toe boots will add much weight to the feet and that weight will use more energy of your body with every step. It will also make you sweat more. (10 Ways to Stop Feet Sweating in Work Boots)
In this sense, you can say that the more you sweat, the more you burn calories and getting sweat faster with steel toe boots can be easier and faster to lose calories from your body.
The negative points of walking in steel to boots to burn more calories:
As steel toe boots will make you exhaust faster, the speed of walking and the duration of walking will be lessened and that won’t help much in losing calories as energy burnt does not always mean burning calories. You can simply lose energy by sitting in the heat or doing brain work.
What factors in walking actually help in burning calories?
It’s not the extra weight put to your feet, but the following factors that actually work in helping you burn more calories while walking:
1.) The speed of walking
Speed is directly proportional to burning calories. The faster you walk, the more calories you are going to burn.
2.) The distance covered
Even if you walk slowly, but cover more miles than walking faster and covering a shorter distance, you will burn more calories.
3.) The time spent
The amount of time spent also counts for burning calories, because more the time, more the walking, and hence more the number of calories burnt (but this will not include the breaks that you take in between walks).
Why should you not walk in steel toe boots?
If you are walking or taking a jog in the park just to keep your body active and there is no need for you to lose weight, you should absolutely skip walking in steel toe boots as walking in them might have the side effects:
1.) Walking in steel toe boots adds that extra weight to the feet which puts strain in the joints of the feet and thus cause joint pains and permanent joint disorders.
2.) Steel toe boots are not flexible at all. For a good walking shoe you need comfort and flexibility in your feet to be able to bend your feed as you walk and steel toe boots obviously will hinder your feet’s flexibility.
3.) If you have heart problems you should completely avoid walking in steel toe boots because they will increase the heart rate if being walked in them for a long period of time.
4.) Walking in Steel toe boots will also make you sweat profusely which you might not like while you just like to enjoy your walking in the park.
5.) Just putting weight on the feet does not ensure that you will burn more calories. For this you need to pace up the speed of your walking which is not possible in steel toe boots.
6.) Walking in heavy steel toe boots will exhaust you faster and limit your exercise time because you will simply get tired after a couple of minutes of walking in them.
7.) Steel toe boots are also hard around the toe area and you will simply not feel comfortable walking in them and this can also cause blisters and athlete’s foot in the long run.
And it’s a wrap!
To conclude, I would suggest that if you want to burn more calories, why put extra strain on your feet by wearing those uncomfortable heavy weight steel toe boots? ( 8 Hacks To Stop Steel Toe Boots From Hurting)
You can simply burn your calories comfortably in the flexible and breathable sneakers or running shoes. That would make you save your energy for longer walks, help you burn more calories and also keep you comfortable and won’t put strain on your muscles and joints.
That’s all folks for this article. Hope to see you soon in my next post. Till then…
Keep walking, stay healthy and exercise more!
Hope you have a wonderful day ahead!
