Originally Posted by
DX Rider
There is alot of junk science regarding the benefits of walking. A couple of weeks ago, the local paper here had a weekly health feature which claimed that you can burn the same amount of calories by either biking 45 minutes or walking 1 hour. That of course is ridiculous. Even if, for the sake of argument, that the walking pace is 3 miles an hour. Which is an extremely quick walking pace for the average person. Except for the chronic coasters of the world, someone biking is going to exert more energy.
What's even more ridiculous is the article was in regards to how long it would take to burn the calories in two slices of pizza.
There is huge variation in how vigorously people ride bikes. There is less variation in how vigorously people walk. So if you don't take a broad sample of cyclists, you can take Joe Average off the street, and he may pedal at 6 mph for a half mile and conclude that cycling is a very mild form of exercise.
I honestly don't know how you can accurately compare cycling with walking, since it's possible to cycle at so many different levels but you can't walk in as many levels.