While growing up, we all once in our life have become victims of commonly followed myths.
One of the most common misconceptions is that brisk walking immediately after a meal helps burn calories. If you try to apply logic without really understanding how our body actually works it does make sense.
We believe if we walk quickly just after our meal, it will help burn calories that we just accumulated. Unfortunately, our digestion process is a bit more complicated than that. For starters, the process for your food to get converted into calories is a really long process, and the process is called digestion. So ask yourself, will you be able to burn calories if you don’t let the food get digested completely. I bet all of you agree that the answer is NO.
Let us clear it for once and for all that brisk walking after a meal is a bad idea. It can lead to acid reflux, indigestion & stomach upset. The science is very simple – after a meal, our digestion process is all set to get to work. During digestion, our body releases digestive juices into our stomach and intestines. During this time, our stomach and intestines require the maximum amount of blood supply to carry the digestion process smoothly. So, the concentration of blood supply needs to be solely directed towards your stomach and intestines. Between these processes, if we take part in any other vigorous activity as simple as walking, the blood circulation gets diverted and it compromises the blood flow to your core area. This hampers the digestive process, thus leading to a variety of complications.
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One more thing to completely avoid post-dinner is working out. It not only affects our digestion but also postpones our sleep time. Workouts are an effective way of busting stress. Working out leads to the release of endorphins in our body which gets us highly elated and active which tends to delay our sleep cycle.
So the best advice is to go for a brisk walk or indulge in any form of workout half an hour prior to your meal. It takes a lot of energy from our body and leaves it with ample room for the energy to be restored after a sumptuous meal. This drastically reduces the chances of your food getting converted into fat as the food we consume is used by the body for energy. In simple terms, working out before a meal amplifies your body’s metabolism which leads to a better burn up of calories once we consume and digest our food.
Hence it is proved that in order to reap maximum benefits out of brisk walking, we need to plan it before our meal. However, you can indulge in some leisurely walk post-meal just to get rid of the bloating feeling. You need to make sure that you go for a walk after a gap of 45 minutes.