Why Walking After Eating Is So Good For You In Harlem And Beyond

By Everyday Health

Let’s face it: Grocery shopping, meal prepping, cooking, and cleaning up afterwards takes a lot of energy.

Once you’ve actually eaten and washed the dishes, getting up and moving may be the last thing you want to do.

But taking a walk after eating comes with a host of health benefits — and you don’t have to go too fast or far to reap the rewards.

Here are all the reasons it’s so good to go for a power walk or even just a stroll after a meal.

When Should You Walk After a Meal?

While experts have mixed opinions on exactly how soon to walk after meals, they generally agree that it’s good to get moving as soon as you can — ideally within a half an hour of eating. 

“As long as you feel comfortable walking right after you finish eating, that is a good time,” says Sheri Colberg, PhD, professor emerita of exercise science at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. 

Research has found significant improvements in blood sugar and other so-called cardiometabolic risk factors when people took a walk instead of standing still or sitting after meals.

How Long Should You Walk After Meals?

There are no hard and fast rules on how long you should walk for. It’s possible to benefit even from a brief, leisurely stroll. Health improvements have been seen even with walking at a slow pace for as little as two to five minutes.

Want to kick it up a notch? Taking a 15-minute walk after each meal may further improve your cardiometabolic health.

“There’s no step distance or number of steps you need to reach to feel the benefits of walking after eating,” says Heather Viola, DO, an assistant professor of internal medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City. “One person’s ideal walk length may be different from another’s.”

If you’re just starting out with a new walking routine, aim for 10 minutes, Viola advises. As that starts to feel comfortable, gradually increase the duration of your walks. 

What’s more important is picking an amount of time you can stick to and make a daily habit, says Loretta DiPietro, PhD, MPH, a professor of exercise and nutrition sciences at the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University in Washington, DC. “This must be repeated regularly for the benefits to continue.”

Walking After Eating Is Good For Blood Sugar

Studies have long shown that walking after meals is good for managing blood sugar levels. A small experiment done more than a decade ago compared how walking before versus after meals impacted blood sugar in people with type 2 diabetes — and found that it was clearly better to walk after eating.

More recently, a meta-analysis of eight studies examining the benefits of walking before versus after meals also found a clear advantage for waiting. Both healthy participants and individuals with symptoms of type 2 diabetes had better blood sugar control when they walked after meals, and saw little if any impact on blood sugar from walking before meals.

Why? Walking requires your muscles to work harder than they do at rest, and muscles burn glucose, or sugars, as fuel to do this work, says Dan Seung Kim, MD, PhD, an exercise and physical activity researcher at Stanford University in California. “As a result, walking after eating has been shown in numerous small trials and larger meta-analyses to decrease blood glucose in both patients with diabetes and those without.” 

Walking After Eating May Support Heart Health 

Much of the research on walking and heart health doesn’t focus specifically on whether it’s more important to get your steps in before or after meals. But the large body of evidence does point to clear heart health benefits from taking a walk — no matter when it fits into your schedule. 

In fact, walking as little as three times a week for 20 minutes at a time has been found to significantly lower blood pressure.

Walking can have a positive impact on cholesterol levels, as well — particularly in individuals with overweight or obesity. Research also shows that walking may help significantly improve total cholesterol and the “bad” low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol that clogs arteries, regardless of how much people weigh. People with obesity may experience these benefits, too, as well as reductions in triglycerides, or fats that can clog arteries.

“These beneficial effects, if kept up over a longer period of time, help keep the arteries of the heart clear of plaque buildup that causes heart attacks,” emphasizes Dr. Kim.

Walking After Eating May Aid Weight Loss

Walking may not be the first workout that comes to mind when your goal is weight loss. And it’s true that spending time performing more intense aerobic activities can burn more calories than taking leisurely stroll around the neighborhood. But weight-loss benefits from walking still exist — even if you break it down into shorter, more frequent walks. 

In fact, research comparing the benefits of a single 50-minute daily walk to two 25-minute walks each day found that people shed more inches from their midsection and lost more weight with the two short walks then they did with the single long one.

Part of the benefit of multiple daily walks is that this approach often replaces the time people otherwise spend sitting after eating (or indulging in extra calories with dessert) with post-meal stroll, instead, says Dr. DiPietro. 

“Walking after meals consistently can bring you closer to reaching a calorie deficit and — if consistently maintained — can aid in weight loss,” Viola says. “When you walk after eating, your body expends more energy to support the exercise, resulting in more caloric expenditure than sitting or resting.”

And even if weight loss isn’t a goal, taking a walk after eating can still help with weight management, says DiPietro. 

“Walking after eating can aid in appetite regulation and reduced snacking between meals, which can help with weight management,” adds Viola.

Walking After Eating May Improve Sleep

Many people who don’t sleep well struggle with exercise because they simply feel too tired to push through a workout. But the truth is that incorporating low-impact activities like walking into your day can actually help you sleep at night. 

Research shows that people who averaged more steps a day reported better quality sleep with fewer nighttime awakenings than people who walked less. And walking before bed may also help improve sleep efficiency, or the amount of time spent in bed actually sleeping.

Another study found that walking more can help you fall asleep faster, another key to waking up feeling more rested and able to face your day.

“Walking after a meal can improve sleep quality by helping regulate circadian rhythms and promoting better digestion,” Viola says. “Low-to-moderate physical activities like walking can enhance the body’s natural sleep-wake cycle, making it easier to fall asleep and enjoy deeper, more restorative sleep.”

Walking After Eating May Boost Mood and Mental Health 

“Walking can help with the release of hormones in the brain that help decrease depression and improve mood,” says Jill Kanaley, PhD, a professor of nutrition and exercise sciences at the University of Missouri in Columbia. 

As with so many other potential benefits of walking after a meal, most of the evidence that shows sleep can boost mental health has to do with the exercise itself rather than the timing of it. That said, it’s clear that you don’t have to walk for long or push yourself too hard to reap the benefits.

Research shows that taking a 20-minute walk five days a week can significantly reduce the risk of depression. While harder, longer workouts showed even more mental health benefits, this amount of walking alone was associated with a 16 percent lower risk of depression compared with those getting no physical activity at all.

Another study found taking a brief walk just three days a week was enough to reduce symptoms of anxiety, depression, and stress. Here, too, the magnitude of these benefits was higher when people walked longer and more often — but the gains of a leisurely stroll like many people might take after a meal were still clear.

Viola says that walking can improve mental health by lowering the amount of stress hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol and releasing endorphins that can help boost mood and reduce stress. While walking after meals is one way to achieve these benefits, it’s not the only time that works, Viola adds. “If this is the primary benefit you’re looking for, aim to fit a walk-in whenever suits you best.”

The Takeaway

While taking a walk any time of the day is good for your health, squeezing some steps in after you eat can provide even more benefits to both your mind and your body. Whether you’re looking to stabilize blood sugar, improve heart health, support weight-loss efforts, promote sleep, or boost mood, taking a stroll after you eat can help you achieve your health goals. And if you’re short on time, don’t stress: Even walking for a few minutes after a meal can help you reap these health benefits.

Photo credit: HWM.