Is climbing stairs for weight loss really effective? How does it work and how are calories calculated?

Is climbing stairs an effective way to lose weight?

"Ready—Go!" At the command, many people began climbing the stair-step "track." A unique competition began.

This was a stair-climbing competition held not long ago in the United States. The doctor who hosted the competition told people that this is a beneficial exercise, not only a rare fitness method but also a unique treatment method. Stair climbing therapy is mainly used to prevent and treat obesity, help people lose weight, and also helps prevent arteriosclerosis and coronary heart disease.

Why can stair climbing therapy help with weight loss?

If you weigh 60 kg and live on the 5th floor, and assuming each floor is 4 meters high (vertical height from the ground), how much energy do you expend each time you go up and down the stairs?

With a weight of 60 kg, the work done by the muscles on each floor is:

60 × 4 = 240 (kg/m³)

After climbing 5 floors, the work done by the muscles is:

240 × 5 = 1200 (kg/m³)

However, the mechanical efficiency of human muscle contraction is relatively low; only about 20% of the energy is used for work, while the other 80% is released as heat. Therefore, the total work you do going upstairs is: 60 × 4 × 5 ÷ 20% = 6000 (kg/m). Going downstairs requires less work, only about one-third of the work done going upstairs.

That is, 6000 ÷ 3 = 2000 (kg/m). The total work done going up and downstairs should be: 6000 + 2000 = 8000 (kg/m). According to scientists, doing 426 kg/m of work requires 1 kcal of energy. Therefore, the energy consumed going up and down the stairs once is: 8000 ÷ 426 ≈ 18.8 (kcal).

You might think this 18.8 kcal is insignificant, but if you go up and down the stairs 5 times a day, the energy consumed will be: 18.8 × 5 = 94 (kcal). This exercise burns more energy than 10 minutes of playing football (a football player burns approximately 8.9 kcal per minute) and more than 13 minutes of cross-country running (cross-country running burns 7.1 kcal per minute).

Furthermore, some calculations show that in the same unit of time, climbing stairs burns four times more energy than walking and twice as much as playing table tennis.

Therefore, the more times you climb stairs each day, or the higher the floor you live on, the more energy you burn going up and down stairs.

During exercise, energy primarily comes from fat. If we calculate based on 94 kcal burned daily going up and down stairs, how much fat tissue is consumed? Physiologists know that each gram of fat releases 9.3 kcal of energy upon oxidation. Fat tissue includes not only fat but also water and connective tissue surrounding fat cells. To eliminate these factors, we need to divide by 80%. Therefore, the amount of fat tissue equivalent to burning 94 kcal is:

94 + 9.3 ÷ 80% ≈ 12.6 (grams)

From this, you can easily calculate that if you burn an extra 12.6 grams of fat tissue every day by climbing stairs, after 40 days that's 504 grams (a little over one jin). If you consistently climb stairs year after year, isn't this a weight loss therapy? Wouldn't your weight decrease ideally?

For middle-aged and elderly people, climbing stairs for weight loss should not be too fast, the exercise intensity should not be too high, and safety should be a priority. People with heart, liver, kidney disease, or high blood pressure should be cautious when climbing stairs and should ideally do so under the guidance of a doctor.