The Health Benefits of Going to the Woods

First posted on 09-09-2011

Over 170 million people visit our national forests annually in search of nature, wildlife and recreation. A new study in the Journal of Forestry estimates that those people collectively burn 290 billion calories. That’s enough of an energy burn to take care of all the french fries needed to reach the moon and back—twice.

Research forester Jeff Kline explained that the study’s intent was to estimate the net energy expenditures for a wide range of outdoor activities in order to determine the health benefits associated with national forest land. Kline and his team matched up data about what activities visitors engage in while visiting the woods with calorie burns for each type of activity.

With that many calories expended, Kline and his team had no problem assessing that national forests meet—and likely exceed—physical activity guidelines set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Kline’s team discovered that hiking, walking, downhill skiing, camping, pleasure drives and just plain relaxing made up 68 percent of all forest land visits each year.

Adults were responsible for the biggest share of the aerobic calorie burn portion of total calories as described by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Somewhere around 6.8 million of them trekked the woods compared with only about 317,000 children.

National forests out west accounted for the greatest number of visits and energy expenditures with 75 percent of the total for each category.

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