As concern grows about sedentary lifestyles, the NHS is launching a rewards and vouchers scheme if people walk at least 20 minutes a day. From next year, people will get “prizes” if they cover the equivalent of a marathon in a month – walking 20 minutes everyday covers around 26 miles in four weeks. The campaign led by Sir Brendan Foster, says this could give up to four extra years of healthy life.
Nearly a quarter of adults, 12 million people, are physically inactive, according to Sport England. A person is classified as physically inactive if they do less than 30 minutes of moderate-intensity equivalent physical activity per week. But can a 20 minute walk a day transform the health of someone who does regular exercise?
I’m not the unhealthiest person – far from it. I go to the gym, eat reasonably well and try to limit my takeaways and sweet treats. But, like most people, I could be better – and my new goal is to focus on my step count.
It always sounded so simple – the 10k step rule. Last summer, I made sure my Fitbit displayed the magic number 10,000, but as the air grew colder and nights got darker I slacked and told myself half the amount would suffice – then never managed to get back into the swing of it. I’m 22 with no known health issues so how bad could it be?
Then I saw an article on the benefits of taking a short walk after dinner. Even 10 minutes after the last meal of the day promised immense health benefits.
According to Dr Alasdair Scott, “going for a walk after a meal has beneficial effects.” He adds: “Using our muscles increases their demand for glucose and active muscles are more sensitive to the effects of insulin. And thirdly, active muscles can take up glucose independently of insulin. All this means that the body doesn’t need to produce as much insulin to clear the glucose load, the glucose load is cleared from the blood faster and the peak blood sugar level is lower.
“Improving glucose levels after meals can reduce the risk of developing heart disease and diabetes. It’s also likely that walking outside has other benefits such as improving mental wellbeing.”
Studies show that walking after the biggest meal of the day can improve digestion, reduce heart disease risk, regulate blood sugar levels and promote weight loss. I was sold.
Scott recommends walking as soon as possible after eating for 20 to 30 minutes, but not to put too much pressure on the duration. “In terms of how long to walk, something is better than nothing and more is better than less.”
With his advice, I tried it for myself.
On the first day when 6.30pm rolled around, half an hour after I finished work and was sitting down for my pasta and chicken dinner, I started to regret my decision. Why on earth did I think leaving my cosy home, and my unfinished book staring right at me, would be a good idea?
Still, I couldn’t fail on the first day. Reluctantly, I headed out for 20 minutes. I had only walked twice around the block until the timer on my phone dinged, alerting me to the fact I could go back inside.
At first, I was disappointed. I expected to instantly feel like a healthier version of myself after just 20 short minutes of moving my legs. My heart rate had increased, from 65 to 100 according to my Oura Ring. I guess that was something – maybe a few scraps of my pasta had been burned off.
But then, straight after the walk, I noticed I had much more energy. Normally, after dinner, I would leave a pile of dishes on the side until the morning when I could be bothered to clean up after myself. Instead, I deep cleaned the entire kitchen before moving onto the bathroom. Oddly, I had enough energy to not fall asleep on the sofa in the early evening.
I carried on with my new routine and after a week, I noticed something else. The bloating I would get from most food seemed to stop. Even if I was having a rice dish, pasta or a pie, my stomach didn’t seem angry at me for attempting to feed it. I was a lot more comfortable.
That in itself was transformative. “Body movement can aid digestion by promoting stimulation of the stomach and intestines, causing food to move through rapidly,” according to Healthline. For me, this was true, and I saw the results quickly.
On top of my usual daily activity, I was also racking up around 2,000 steps on my evening walk, and paired with the extra I did at home now I wasn’t succumbing to an early 8pm bedtime ritual, it meant I was consistently hitting around 8,000 to 9,000. Recently, researchers have found that every 1,000 daily steps up to 10,000 can be linked to a nine per cent reduction in depression, so the extra few thousand I was getting was having a huge boost mentally.
Scott says there’s other benefits too. “On average, adults take about 5,000 steps per day but even 2,500 steps can reduce your risk of dying from heart disease. Increasing the step count to 6,500 per day may be associated with improvements in blood pressure while going over 8,000 may reduce the risk of obesity, sleep apnoea and depression. At 9,800 steps per day the risk of developing dementia is slashed by 50 per cent.
“But the benefits of walking don’t just stop at 10,000 steps. At 11,500 the risk of dying from any cause is 77 per cent lower than it was at 2,500 steps.”
I also found another surprising positive: my sleep was better. I’ve never been particularly an awful sleeper but I’d often wake a few times in the night. That stopped and I’d often sleep throughout the night. It translated to my Oura ring sleep score which improved from around 70 to 85. It got me high praise on my app and I felt much more energised during the day.
I let go of the lucky number 10,000 and focused on how I felt. “Instead of focusing on a set number of steps per day, it’s more beneficial to focus on doing more than you currently do. If you currently do 3,000 steps per day (and this is your only form of exercise) then try to increase to 4,000. And then try for 5,000 and so on,” says Scott.
It was quite incredible really how such a short burst of activity in my evening impacted my daily routine, and how much better I felt for it. There were times, of course, I tried to talk myself out of going – if the rain was pouring – but I carried on. And I won’t be stopping anytime soon.
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