There's an old Chinese proverb that says, “if you take 100 steps after eating, you'll live to 99.” It’s been a maxim of traditional medicine for centuries that gentle exercise soon after you leave the dinner table promotes better digestion and improved long-term health.
But guess what? This ancient idea is increasingly supported by modern-day research – not to mention social media hype.
In 2024, Canadian cookbook author Mairlyn Smith went viral on TikTok with a video espousing the benefits of a post-meal “fart walk” to reduce bloating and relieve gas.
The idea is that movement gets the digestive system moving by stimulating the stomach, intestines and gut wall, plus the muscles in and around them.
Food starts moving through the gastrointestinal tract more swiftly, bowel movements are more regular and gas is less likely to build up in the pipes.
If this sounds like hot air, think again.
The evidence behind fart walks
A steady drip-feed of research papers in recent years has shown numerous benefits to taking a walk or doing other light exercise soon after eating. And it’s potentially a lot more powerful than just the release of trapped gas.
In 2020, a Japanese team found that people who suffer from irritable bowel syndrome can reduce the severity of their symptoms by up to 50 per cent by increasing their daily step count from 4,000 to 9,500.
Other researchers are finding that post-meal exercise has a measurable impact on markers of cardiometabolic health.
In 2022, scientists found that as little as two to five minutes of walking after a meal could lower blood sugar levels. In fact, intermittent breaks of light exercise after meals and throughout the day can help lower glucose by 17 per cent compared to prolonged periods of sitting.
Researchers are still working out exactly how the effect works, says Dr Aidan Buffey, a doctoral researcher at the University of Limerick who led the study.
“It’s a little bit of a black box,” he says. “The assumption is that rather than producing more insulin to help transport glucose, by taking a walk or by doing some exercise, our contracting muscles stimulate the uptake of glucose.”
The theory is supported by other studies on diabetic and pre-diabetic patients. One meta-analysis from 2023 found that diabetic people show better insulin control when they take a walk within 30 minutes of finishing a meal.
“For people with diabetes, that insulin pathway maybe isn’t working as well, which is why they [often] require insulin injections,” Buffey says.
“By remaining seated, those individuals potentially aren’t seeing any of that insulin pathway being activated.
“So, we definitely see people with diabetes benefit from this. There are some researchers who are even looking at reversing diabetes from an exercise and nutrition standpoint.”
There are other benefits, too. Some papers suggest that walking after a meal can help with weight management, while improved blood-sugar control means better mood and energy levels.
And that’s to say nothing of the vast mountain of evidence linking regular walks to better odds when it comes to mental health and lower cancer risks.
In 2025, researchers in Sydney even found that for every 1,000 steps (above 2,300 and up to 10,000 per day), you cut your odds of heart failure by 17 per cent.
How intense should a fart walk be?
Pushing yourself is definitely beneficial, Buffey says. “Light exercise is good. Light is acceptable and maybe motivating. But it’s like driving a car: you start in first gear and then slowly you can shift up.
“There’s a lot of new literature coming out looking at correlations between vigorous physical activity and mortality rates.
"People that do vigorous physical activity are shown to have lower rates of mortality – and it’s not a high-intensity, 60-minute exercise. It’s, can you do two minutes of high-intensity work?”
In other words, running up and down the stairs is going to be even more beneficial than a discrete and gentle fart walk.
Buffey also suggests yoga or bodyweight exercises like squats and push-ups as ways to increase the effectiveness of your after-dinner workout, and says you should aim to do it within 60 minutes of putting your fork down to see the best results.
So, get up and get moving. Just make sure you’re not downwind of anyone else following this advice.
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