Looking to Burn More Calories? Take the Stairs.

Unless you have an absurdly efficient metabolism, odds are good that ways to burn more calories are on your mind at least some of the time. There’s been a lot written about the relationship between calories and health, whether it’s about theories of caloric reduction or the ways that different forms of exercise can affect the body. Now, there’s a growing body of evidence that suggests that if burning calories is your exercise goal, a set of stairs is the most effective tool to have.

That’s the big takeaway from a recent Associated Press article by Stephen Wade. And there’s a second part to it — if your goal from burning calories is losing weight, the two are somewhat linked. “The overall energy expenditure of the exercise depends on your weight. Therefore, the more you weigh, the more you burn,” Lauri van Houten of the International Skyrunning Federation — which oversees, among other events, the Stairclimbing World Championships — told the AP.

Wade goes on to cite the difference between climbing stairs and walking on flat ground when it comes to burning calories, and the difference is significant: walking or running up stairs is around 20 times as effective as staying level. And while descending stairs isn’t quite as beneficial as going up, it’s still five times as effective as a comparable movement on flat ground.

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The health benefits of going down stairs aren’t the only way that stair-based exercise can surprise us. The AP goes on to cite the work of the University of Milan’s Dr. Alberto Minetti, who notes that using handrails when going up or down stairs isn’t just safer — it’s also healthier, since you’re using more of your body. At a time when specialized fitness devices abound, it’s good to know that one effective piece of equipment is widespread and can be found nearly everywhere.