TempoLife › Features › Video explainers › walking-vs-running
Walking vs running: per minute and per kilometre
The viewer understands why running wins per minute and the gap narrows per kilometre, and can pick on that basis.
There are no videos here yet, and this page does not pretend otherwise. TempoLife has published no explainer videos, so nothing on this surface is watchable and there is no player anywhere on it. What is published is the script library: the full storyboard for each explainer, ready to shoot.
The hook
“Running burns more than walking. Per kilometre, less than you think.”
First four seconds. It states the surprise outright rather than promising one, because a promise is a reason to scroll and a surprise is a reason to stay.
Why this topic is worth 80 seconds
The point of this video is that they are not opposites, they sit on the same energy curve. Halving the pace roughly halves the cost, and doubling the time evens the sum.
For a beginner the walking line wins because it can be sustained. For a busy adult the running line wins on minutes-per-kilo-of-CO2, so to speak.
What the video should not do is pick a winner. The point is to remove the false choice and show a viewer where they already are on the curve.
The comparison is usually made per minute, where running wins comfortably, and people conclude walking is not worth doing. Per kilometre the gap is much narrower, because walking a kilometre takes longer.
That distinction is genuinely decision-relevant: if you have forty minutes, run; if you have a fixed route, the difference is smaller than the effort suggests.
The storyboard
| Time | On screen | Voiceover | Visual |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0:00–0:05 | Per minute or per km? | Running burns more than walking. Per kilometre, less than you think. | Split screen: walker and runner on the same path. |
| 0:05–0:22 | Per minute, running wins | Per minute it is not close. Easy running costs roughly twice what brisk walking costs, and a hard run considerably more than that. | Two per-minute figures side by side, running clearly ahead. |
| 0:22–0:42 | Per kilometre, it narrows | But a kilometre of walking takes about twice as long. Stretch the comparison over a fixed distance and the two get much closer, because you are paying for time as well as intensity. | The same two figures re-computed per kilometre, the gap visibly shrinking. |
| 0:42–1:00 | Which to choose | So it depends on what is fixed. Forty minutes free? Run — you will spend more. A fixed route to the station? Walk it, and the difference is smaller than the effort. | Clock icon versus map-pin icon, one path each. |
| 1:00–1:14 | The part nobody prices | And running carries an injury cost walking does not. The best exercise is still the one you repeat next week, which is a variable no MET table contains. | Trainer being laced, then a calendar with repeated marks. |
| 1:14–1:20 | Both are priced | Every activity on TempoLife has its energy cost listed. | End card: /activity-calories. |
Read it as a script
The voiceover column, in order, is the whole piece:
Running burns more than walking. Per kilometre, less than you think.
Per minute it is not close. Easy running costs roughly twice what brisk walking costs, and a hard run considerably more than that.
But a kilometre of walking takes about twice as long. Stretch the comparison over a fixed distance and the two get much closer, because you are paying for time as well as intensity.
So it depends on what is fixed. Forty minutes free? Run — you will spend more. A fixed route to the station? Walk it, and the difference is smaller than the effort.
And running carries an injury cost walking does not. The best exercise is still the one you repeat next week, which is a variable no MET table contains.
Every activity on TempoLife has its energy cost listed.
Every number this script shows
The per-minute and per-kilometre comparison. Walking taken at 5.5 km/h, easy running at 9.5 km/h.
| What appears on screen | Value | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Brisk walking | 4.3 MET · 5.6 kcal/min | data/site/exercises.php (2011 Compendium of Physical Activities) |
| Easy running | 8.3 MET · 10.9 kcal/min | data/site/exercises.php (2011 Compendium of Physical Activities) |
| Running vs walking, per minute | 1.9× more | Computed on this page |
| Walking, per kilometre | 62 kcal | Computed on this page at 5.5 km/h |
| Running, per kilometre | 69 kcal | Computed on this page at 9.5 km/h |
| Running vs walking, per kilometre | 1.12× more | Computed on this page |
Nothing in the storyboard above quotes a figure directly. The beats refer to numbers and this table supplies them, so a script written months ago cannot go stale against its own data.
Production notes
- Shoot both on the same path in the same light so the comparison reads as a comparison.
- The per-kilometre recompute is the beat people remember. Animate the transform rather than cutting to a new graphic.
- Keep the injury beat. Without it the video is an argument for running, which is not the point.
Closing card
Price any activity at tempolife.app/activity-calories
General information, not medical advice. These scripts describe averages across populations; nothing in them is a diagnosis or a treatment recommendation.
Source: Figures computed from the TempoLife food database (USDA FoodData Central SR Legacy) and the 2011 Compendium of Physical Activities · checked 2026-09-02
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