A Quick ‘Fart Walk’ Might Be Just What You Need to End Your Day

Now that it’s 2024, we’ve graduated from hot girl walks to a rather different version: Consider this the 12 months of the fart walk.

Last week, Mairlyn Smith, a TikTok creator who goes by the apt handle @mairlynthequeenoffibreintroduced us all to the concept in a video she posted. Every night, she and her husband lace up their trainers about 60 minutes after dinner and head out. “Now, why can we do that?” she says within the video. “Well, we eat quite a lot of fiber, so we’ve gas—everybody does—and yeah, you fart whilst you walk. So that’s why I named it that.”

This isn’t only a cute marital routine (presumably they offer one another some respiratory room); Smith just may be onto something when she says the walks help her “age splendidly.” There are just a few specific physical advantages she points to: It helps ease any after-dinner bloating reduces the chance of developing type 2 diabetes, Smith tells SELF.

GI doctors quickly entered the chat on TikTok to back up Mairyln’s claims. Of course, you may’t imagine every part you hear on social media (especially health claims), so we spoke with Lisa Ganjhu, DOa gastroenterologist at NYU Langone Health, for the within scoop on all things fart walking—and to see if it’s time all of us let one rip.

Turns out, even just a bit little bit of exercise can indeed help break up that bloated feeling: A post-meal stroll kick-starts digestion. “When you’re moving, your GI tract can be moving,” Dr. Ganjhu tells SELF. This helps trigger gut motility, or movement of your intestines, which is important for correctly breaking down food. “There must be motion to assist move the food along,” she says. “When you’re walking and moving around, you’re mainly helping the motility a part of the digestive tract.” (That might explain why you regularly feel so rattling bloated after eating on an airplane or a train, where you may’t move around freely.)

And research backs this up: Post-meal activity has been shown to hurry stomach emptying and colon transit, and in response to a separate study within the even mild activity after a meal was enough to significantly reduce bloating. What’s more, boosting your gut motility and moving the food out quickly may also help with heartburn or gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), says Dr. Ganjhu—there’s simply less time for the digestive acids to do their thing.

As for the claim that a fart walk can protect against diabetes? style of exercise can assist keep your blood sugar in check, says Dr. Ganjhu. And an after-dinner stroll might just be a terrific technique to do it: A study within the journal found that a walk after eating can assist stabilize your blood sugar levels. That’s essential, since repeated spikes over time could make your body less sensitive to insulin, which may increase your risk of developing type 2 diabetes.