Walking or Riding Bike to Work Can Help Prevent Obesity, Study Shows

Would you like to lose weight on your way to work? Then choose to walk, ride a bike or take a bus, says a new study. Driving to work can be heavy on your pocket as well as your waist.

Researcher Ellen Flint at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine in England and colleagues collected information on 150,000 participants between 40 and 69 years. Based on their commutation patterns, they compared the differences in their weight gains.

The study showed that men who biked showed a body mass index (BMI) about 1.7 points lower than the BMI of male adult drivers. Women too who biked had a BMI that was 1.65 points lower than women drivers. While the biking group tended to weigh less, the distance to work also affected their health.

Walking was the second mode of commuting that could lower the weight, the BMI of cyclers was one point lower than the BMI recorded in drivers. Those who used public transportation also showed a lower BMI and weight when compared to the drivers.

"We found that, compared with commuting by car, public transport, walking and cycling or a mix of all three are associated with reductions in body mass and body fat percentage, even when accounting for demographic and socioeconomic factors," Flint said. "Many people live too far from their workplace for walking or cycling to be feasible, but even the incidental physical activity involved in public transport can have an important effect."

The reasons are clear. Even after factoring the income, education level and smoking, higher physical activity levels tended to drive the calorie burning of the walkers and bikers.

The study was published in the March 16 , 2016 issue of the journal The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology.