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A slower usual walking pace significantly amplifies the genetic effect on BMI, with the genetic score effect being 2.5 times higher in slow walkers compared to brisk walkers.
If you are genetically prone to obesity, how fast you walk matters. Walking at a brisk pace significantly reduces the genetic impact on your BMI compared to walking slowly. Increasing your daily walking speed is a low-barrier way to mitigate genetic risk.
StrongQualifiesVERY_HIGH confidence
Similarly, the effect of the genetic score for BMI was 2.5 times higher in participants who reported having a slow walking pace compared to participants who reported having a brisk walking pace.
Why this rating
Large sample size, replication, highly significant p-value (3.83*10^-26).
Source
Gene-environment interaction study for BMI reveals interactions between genetic factors and physical activity, alcohol consumption and socioeconomic status
Mathias Rask‐Andersen et al. · PLoS Genetics · 2017
DOI 10.1371/journal.pgen.1006977
cohort · n=362496Cited 181×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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