Most fitness advice focuses on structured workouts, but most of our daily movement occurs in small, unplanned bursts.
Such bursts are often dismissed as insignificant, but actually impose a higher metabolic cost on the body than the same amount of continuous exercise. The reason? Inefficiency. Each time you go from rest to movement, your body must scramble to meet a sudden demand for energy, burning more fuel in the process.
Most of us don’t register daily stair climbs, walking between rooms at the office or home, or pacing while on the phone as meaningful exercise. However, research reveals that short, stop-and-go motions burn between 20 percent and 60 percent more energy per second than exercising at a steady pace, thanks to the metabolic cost of repeatedly starting from rest. This hidden inefficiency means our everyday fidgeting and fragmented activity may actually be fueling our metabolism more than we realize.
Volunteers in the study walked on a treadmill or climbed a short flight of stairs for different lengths of time, ranging from 10 seconds to four minutes. As they did so, they wore a mask to measure their oxygen intake—a means of measuring energy consumption.
By capturing the initial ramp-up and the extended recovery, the researchers found something exercise tracking devices often miss: real-life movement, which is stop-and-go, irregular, and surprisingly metabolically taxing.
In other words, when it comes to how our bodies burn fuel, moving little and often can actually increase energy expenditure.
Move Often
In 2023, research at the University of Sydney found that very short bursts of vigorous activity, even as brief as one to three minutes, were strongly linked to reduced risks of early death, cancer, heart attack, and stroke. Bouts of less than one minute also reduced the risk of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE)—including nonfatal stroke, nonfatal myocardial infarction, and cardiovascular death—when the activity was low vigorous.
In the aggregate, these results mean that everyday actions like running for the bus, climbing stairs quickly, or power-walking during errands could become vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity.
‘Stop-and-Go’
When you begin to move, your body doesn’t glide into action—but generally lurches. Like an old engine on a cold morning, it sputters, runs rich, and only gradually finds its rhythm.
At the onset of movement, your muscles require energy immediately, but the aerobic system—which uses oxygen—takes time to ramp up. In those first few seconds, your body relies primarily on anaerobic energy systems, which do not require oxygen. There’s also a delay in increased oxygen consumption, which is linked to a gradual rise in breathing rate and blood flow to working muscles.
Even after you stop moving, your oxygen consumption remains elevated for several minutes. Both the startup and recovery phases contribute to the total energy burned, making brief bouts of movement surprisingly costly and inefficient in terms of calorie expenditure.
In other words, the shorter the movement, the higher the energy cost per second, due to the inefficiency of transitioning from rest to activity and back again.
Energy Burning Not Tracked by Wearable Devices
Most wearables and exercise calculators underestimate the energy cost of fragmented movement because they don’t account for the inefficiencies of starting and stopping. So, if your daily routine is filled with short, frequent movements, you’re likely burning more calories than your device reports.
Small changes can have an increased cumulative effect. For example, a 150-pound person who walks six times a day for five minutes at a time could burn an extra 30 to 90 calories per day compared to doing the same amount of walking in one session. Over a week, that’s an additional 350 to 1,000 calories—without formal workouts.
The benefits go beyond calorie burn. Another study has shown that interrupting long periods of sitting with brief bouts of light movement can lower blood glucose and insulin levels by 33 percent and 41 percent, respectively. This suggests that frequent, short bursts of activity can help regulate metabolism and may reduce the risk of chronic metabolic diseases like diabetes, and assist weight loss because efficient fuel use means less fat storage.
Practical Tips
The practical takeaway is to rethink what counts as exercise. The key isn’t to make movement harder or longer but more frequent and fragmented—even if only for a few seconds at a time.
Here are ways to easily add short bursts of energy to your day:
Break Up Long Sedentary Periods
Instead of sitting for hours, stand up and move around every 30 to 60 minutes. Set reminders if it helps you create the habit.
Even brief, light activity, like walking to another room or stretching, triggers the metabolic “startup cost” and increases your daily calorie burn.
Fragment Your Exercise
Split a 15-minute walk into three five-minute walks. The total distance is the same, but the energy cost is higher due to repeated startups and recoveries.
Climb stairs in short, frequent bursts rather than one long session. Each trip up the stairs adds its metabolic penalty.
Pair Movement With Routine Activities
Stretch or do simple exercises while waiting for the microwave or during TV commercials.
Pace during phone calls or while brainstorming ideas.
Split household chores into smaller chunks with fun movement like using a rebounder in between.
Engineer Inefficiency Into Your Day
Park farther from your destination so you have to walk more often.
Avoid using the elevator, if stairs are an option, even if it’s just for one or two floors.
Ultimately, it’s a good idea to move more often, you'll burn more—your body loves the challenge! Quick, explosive movements often demand more from your muscles and metabolism—encouraging fat loss and better health.
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