All participants saw benefits: walking and fitness training groups saw a significant reduction in body mass, waist circumference and waist-to-hip ratio after the six months as well as resting heart rate. Surprisingly, the control group saw changes too and Bell says it's possible they were motivated to be more physically active after undergoing the health assessment at the start of the study, and having a pedometer, which may have made them more aware of how much or little they were physically active.

"The participants in the traditional fitness program improved their fitness-based response more than those in the walking program," says Bell. "The magnitude of that difference in improvement was very clear."

However, he says, it's not the type of exercise program for everyone. "Not everybody's going to be able to start in a traditional exercise program, such as those with certain health issues or type 2 diabetes, because of the higher intensity, duration and frequency of exercise training that is required".

"Lifestyle and pedometer-based fitness programs make it easier to get started, as long as there are no lower limb issues or (one is not) severely overweight. Most people have the ability to walk and walking-based programs are easy to prescribe and progressively overload, and get people walking far enough to begin to derive health benefits from it."

But, cautions Bell, "It's a long-term commitment. It seems that you need at least six months to get some health benefits from walking based programs."

Source: University of Alberta - Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation