A fitness tracking device like a pedometer may help keep accurate track of speed. Without such a device, the CDC says you can tell if you’re doing moderate-intensity physical activity if “you can talk, but not sing during the activity.” At a higher “vigorous” level, you won’t be able to say more than a few words without pausing for a breath, according to the health agency.

How Increasing Walking Intensity May Help
The results are in line with what experts already know about exercise and diabetes risk. The American Diabetes Association stresses that regular physical activity is an important part of managing diabetes or dealing with prediabetes. When you’re active, your cells become more sensitive to insulin, so it works more effectively to lower your blood sugar.

“The faster someone walks, the more effort they exert — which in turn may improve fitness, reduce and manage weight, and reduce insulin resistance,” says Michael Fang, PhD, an assistant professor in the department of epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, whose research interests include diabetes and wearable technology.

While higher walking speeds may provide greater risk reduction, Robert Gabbay, MD, the chief scientific and medical officer with American Diabetes Association, suggests that any level of regular walking will provide benefits.

“Overall, I think the message is that walking is an important way to improve your health,” says Dr. Gabbay, who was not involved in the study. “It may be true that walking faster is even better, but given the fact that most Americans do not get sufficient walking in the first place, it is most important to encourage people to walk more as they’re able to.”

Dr. Fang cautioned that results were limited because the research was based on summarized observational studies rather than clinical trials. “This is important because it means people may have had preexisting differences in their health [that were not captured in this type of study],” says Fang, who was not involved in the latest study.

“People who are able to walk faster are likely healthier to begin with. That means we’re not sure if the relationship between walking speed and reduced diabetes risk is actually caused by the walking, or by baseline differences in health.”

Pushing the intensity of habitual walking is a practice that people can easily incorporate into their everyday lives, according to study author Jayedi.

“We can increase our walking time and speed when going to work, to school or university, and walking with friends,” he says. Tracking walking speeds and setting goals related to speed may also help. “While any time spent walking per day is better than no walking at all, walking at faster speeds may increase health benefits of walking, independent of the total volume of physical activity or time spent walking per day.”