What Is a 'Fart Walk' — and Can It Improve Your Health?

Mar. 15, 2025

Stock image of someone going for a walk; Stock image of someone in gastric distress.Photo:Sorrasak Jar Tinyo/Getty; athima tongloom/Getty

Sorrasak Jar Tinyo/Getty; athima tongloom/Getty

A flatulent after-dinner stroll can limit your risk of type 2 diabetes and help regulate your blood sugar, claims wellness influencer and author of the cookbook,Peace, Love, and Fibre,Mairlyn Smith, who has dubbed the post-dinner stroll she regularly takes with her husband a “Fart Walk."

In the caption for the now-viral video, which has been viewed more than 465,000 times, Smith says “walking after dinner can help reduce your risk of developing type 2 diabetes.”

Experts say she’s right about the health benefits.

Dr. Matthew Kampert, sport and exercise medicine physician with an appointment with orthopedic and endocrinology at the Cleveland Clinic, tells PEOPLE the release of gastric pressure is just one of the benefits of the “Fart Walk.”

In terms of your digestion — and the aforementioned farts — he tells PEOPLE “after you have a meal, you have what’s called the gastrocolic reflex. So whenever you put things in your mouth and you eat and you swallow, it stimulates your gut to move things forward. So it makes room for the food that you’re eating.”

“So that’s going stimulate things to empty from your stomach and your small intestine and your colon," Kampert tells PEOPLE. “The colon is where most of the bacteria is. It makes the gas.”

And the movement itself helps, he says. “Any time you’re exercising — specifically walking or running — you use some of your muscles called hip flexors, specifically PSOAS muscle. The colon sits right over top of those muscles [and they] they gently massage the colon.”

Stock image of someone walking outside.Good Life Studio/Getty

Good Life Studio/Getty

But while you’re farting around town, you indeed may be reducing your risk of developing type 2 diabetes, as Smith said in her video.

“The whole thing with walking after you eat, it’s going to help control your blood sugar. But the thing is: Walking atanypoint in time will help control your blood sugar,” Kampert tells PEOPLE.

“I would actually argue that exercising before eating is better,” he adds.

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And if you’re sedentary, or pre-diabetic, he says exercise is, indeed, key, and somethinglow-impactlike a Fart Walk would be a good place to start.

“It’s really the people who have desk jobs. Sitting all day, they’re middle-aged, they’re slowly putting weight on, the blood sugar is slowly creeping up,” Kampert says. “They’re in that pre-diabetic range.”

Stock image of a person stepping on a scale.Getty Images

Getty Images

As theCleveland Clinicexplains,type 2 diabetesis caused with “when cells in your muscles, fat and liver don’t respond as they should to insulin. Insulin is a hormone your pancreas makes that’s essential for life and regulating blood sugar levels.”

Kampert cited a study that showed that “exercise was twice as effective as theMetformin,” which he explained is “one of the most common diabetes and pre-diabetes medications.”

Overall, he says, “I think the the fart aspect gets a lot of attention because it’s comical and catchy.”

As for how she came up with the name, Smith explains, “We eat a lot of fiber, so we have gas. You fart when you walk, so that’s why I named it that.”

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Kampert wants to stress, though, that this benefit is mostly about getting the body moving. “The thing that I would highlight is that walking is beneficial. So do it early in the morning, if that works better with your schedule.”

source: people.com