How much should you walk per day for weight loss?

How much should you walk per day for weight loss?

walk

Are you walking every day? without knowing how much should you walk every day? well, this article is for you. Walking is amazing for heart health, as the research and study say. Human beings are made to move, the sitting is more harmful than smoking. Walking is good for your health, it is one of the best cardio workouts for weight loss. Let us find how much should you walk to achieve your goal. 

How much activity is needed for weight loss?

Let us first understand that walking or any sort of physical activity needs to be performed consistently to see the desired results. You can not do too much in one day and nothing on another day ( most of us tend to do that). If you have a problem sticking to one particular schedule and finding time out. It is important to integrate exercise as a part of your daily routine when you are too busy.

You need a minimum of 150 minutes of consistent exercise every day. That is the minimum you should do for optimal health. You can opt 30 minutes of exercise every day, or 45 minutes of exercise for 4 days. It is always advisable to have an active rest day unless you are not doing the heavy lifting.

Walking for weight loss

1 Pound weight loss needs a burn of 3500 calories. 30-90 minutes of the brisk walk should get you to your calorie burn goal. Walking at a fast pace is counted as a moderate-intensity exercise which might elevate your heart rate for desired calorie burn. 

Walking may give different results to different individuals as per their age and intensity of exercise they have been performing. If you are walking from 1 year or more and aim at weight loss you should consider the following:

 

Walking at a pace better than usual 

Most people walk at the same speed and the same distance, though it is considered as physical activity, the body gets used to it. So when you are walking Frequency of walk, the pace of walk and intensity of the walk should be duly considered. Increase your pace if you feel stuck at the scale and feel that you are not even losing inches. 

 

The increasing frequency of the walk or increase the distance

If your body is used to walk 1 hour daily, try and change the distance to 1 hour 15 minutes at an increased pace. Those who are fairly young and have no history of knee pain can go ahead and try jogging. Many people end up with knee pain with jogging so, make sure you start slowly, protect your knees. Before jogging it is advised to perform some warm-up to avoid jerking the body. 

 

Try walking at home with Leslie Sansone

This is one of the most tried and tested methods for increasing the intensity of walks. If you are bored with your walking regime, try something new by using Leslie Sansone’s walking videos. She uses four specific moves while walking which may help joints and aid weight loss. 
Check Leslie’s Walking link at the end of this blog post. 

 

Use ankle weights

Ankle weights are helpful to increase the intensity of walking as you are adding more weight to the body weight. This is one of the best methods to break the monotony and see some results. 

 

How much should you walk? 

There is a huge uproar about 10,000 steps a day. If you are hitting the goal of 10k steps per day that is said to be enough.
10k steps are approximately 8 km or 1 hour 40 minutes of walking every day.
If you are not doing any other workouts, walking for 1 hour 40 minutes burn 400-500 calories. So in a week, you are set to burn 3500 calories considering you are walking all 7 days. 
 

Apps for walking

  • Map My walk
  • Endomondo 
  • Fitbit tracker mobile app
  • Runtastic 

All the above apps are free and you can install them on your mobile phones. If you would like to get yourself a good tracker to check your daily activity. It is the best way to keep a tab on the calories burnt throughout the day.

I walk but I do not lose any weight:

As we always tell our readers, there is no magic wand. First of all, let us congratulate you on being consistent with what you are doing. You have won the first battle. Rest all will fall in place once you realize that your food is not on track. If you feel you should clean up your food habits the best day is to start today. Here is a brief clean eating guide. 

Walking is the best form of cardiovascular exercise but if you keep doing it at a same pace every day, the body gets used to it. It is better to assess and reassess your approach to get the most of any physical activity.

 

Snehal Joshi
mugdhaaa@gmail.com

Snehal is a Certified Nutrition Coach by National Academy of Sports Medicine. She is writing about her persuits of Nutrition Science since last 4 years.

2 Comments
  • ChefWilliam
    Posted at 06:07h, 19 August Reply

    I enjoy walking throughout the day. I wear a FITBIT and it keeps me moving a little every hour. It really is not so much for losing weight as it is to keep this body in some kind of shape. At 80 I make it a point to move a little every hour. I use My Fitness Pal to keep track of the food intake and water, both of which should be monitored when you reach my age. I enjoyed your article and while 10,000 is no longer a daily goal I do try to shoot for it about once a week.

    • admin
      Posted at 11:12h, 19 August Reply

      You are an inspiration, William. So glad to connect with you on this platform. I wish you the best of health. Thank you so much for your comment. Would love to keep in touch with you.

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