Walking is a moderate-intensity exercise that can be easily incorporated into your daily life. Simply walking more often can help you lose weight and belly fat, as well as provide other excellent health benefits, including a decreased risk of disease and improved mood.
How much to walk. Walking at least 3 miles an hour counts as moderate exercise. You'll need 2.5 hours of this level every week, so many experts recommend 30 minutes a day, five days a week. You can use our handy exercise log sheet to track your time over a week.
Popular fitness trackers and pedometers encourage people to take 10,000 steps per day, and one 2016 study agrees that 10,000 steps are ideal. This works out to roughly 5 miles of walking. People interested in walking for weight loss should consistently hit at least 10,000 steps each day.
If you're interested in losing weight, running 3 miles a day could help with this goal. In order to lose weight, you need to burn more calories than you consume. Calculating your burn rate and knowing how many calories you're burning from running is a good start.
Here are a couple of examples. After walking for 1 hour, a 150-pound person burns: 224 calories at a moderate 3 mph pace. Done daily, they'd lose 1 pound in 2.23 weeks and 20 pounds in 44.6 weeks.
If a person was to commit to walking 4,500 extra steps per day, or roughly 3 extra miles, they would be burning an extra 300 calories a day (at least). Burning 300 calories each day leads to a weekly deficit of 2100 calories. After a month, that's roughly 9000 cal burned, which equates to approximately 2.6 pounds lost.
After 3-4 days of walking: you will notice the “better fit” or more room in your clothes! After 7 days of walking: real changes are happening! You have used body fat as energy (fat burning!) Muscles feel more toned!
Walking might not be the most strenuous form of exercise, but it is an effective way to get in shape and burn fat. While you can't spot-reduce fat, walking can help reduce overall fat (including belly fat), which, despite being one of the most dangerous types of fat, is also one of the easiest to lose.
"Generally, 1 mile (or roughly 2,000 steps) walked equates to [burning] 80 to 100 calories." There are 3,500 calories in 1 pound. "This means to lose 1 pound, you'll need to walk roughly 35 miles or 70,000 steps.
#2: Walking 3 Miles a Day Gives You a Great Fitness Base
This is because walking 3 miles a day builds your stamina, conditions your heart and lungs, and strengthens your legs so that you have a good foundation to handle other types of physical activity.
7 Things That Happened When I Made Myself Go For A Walk Every Single Day For A Month. For a such simple, approachable activity, walking certainly does deliver some remarkable health benefits. Studies show that a daily brisk walk can help lower blood pressure, reduce belly fat, increase energy levels, and improve mood.
Physical activity, such as walking, is important for weight control because it helps you burn calories. If you add 30 minutes of brisk walking to your daily routine, you could burn about 150 more calories a day. Of course, the more you walk and the quicker your pace, the more calories you'll burn.
The first place men typically lose weight is the belly, while women tend to lose weight all over, but hold onto weight in their thighs and hips, Dr. Block explains.
In a new study, which looks at activity tracker data from 78,500 people, walking at a brisk pace for about 30 minutes a day led to a reduced risk of heart disease, cancer, dementia and death, compared with walking a similar number of steps but at a slower pace.
Walking is absolutely a great form of exercise, and one that doesn't get a ton of love because it's so chill and easy compared to other forms of exercise, Saltos says. But, rather than building butt muscles, walking can actually make your bum a bit smaller.
Walking 1 hour each day can help you burn calories and, in turn, lose weight. If you'd like to lose a substantial amount of weight (more than 5% of your body weight), the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommends getting at least 300 minutes of moderately intense physical activity weekly.
Walking, even if it's at a moderate pace, for about 30 to 60 minutes every day can help you start to lose belly fat, according to Harvard Health Publishing.
Physical activity doesn't need to be complicated. Something as simple as a daily brisk walk can help you live a healthier life. For example, regular brisk walking can help you: Maintain a healthy weight and lose body fat.
Just 30 minutes every day can increase cardiovascular fitness, strengthen bones, reduce excess body fat, and boost muscle power and endurance. It can also reduce your risk of developing conditions such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, osteoporosis and some cancers.
Start at a pace that's comfortable for you. Then gradually pick up speed until you're walking briskly — generally about 3 to 4 miles an hour. You should be breathing hard, but you should still be able to carry on a conversation. Each week add about two minutes to your walking time.
When Does Walking Not Work so Well? However, if someone is walking every day and not seeing any results, they simply aren't burning enough calories (or they are taking too many calories in through their food). Some of us hear that walking 30 minutes a day is ideal.
With that in mind, adding 4 days of walking 10 miles per day with no additional food intake would put you at around 1 pound of weight loss per week, assuming your calorie intake and expenditure were equal before you started your walking program.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services says you need more than 300 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise a week to lose weight. 5 That means you need to walk 60 or more minutes 5 days a week. Adding 2 days of strength-training a week also helps you manage your weight.