How Walking Can Help You Lose Weight and Keep It Off

Experts agree that a sedentary lifestyle is terrible for people’s health. It increases the risk of blood clots, heart disease, weight gain, diabetes, mental health issues, and all-cause mortality. But people don’t need to live at the gym in order to have an active lifestyle. In fact, the simple act of walking could be enough to reap the benefits of exercise such as weight loss, especially if they are walking throughout the day. 

Walking for Weight Loss

For many people, the idea of losing weight may seem daunting when they consider all of the different types of exercise plans. However, walking, though not as intense as weight-lifting at the gym, can help drop pounds while being more accessible and easier of a commitment. 

“Walking helps you lose weight by increasing your heart rate and burning calories. If you burn more calories than you consume, you will be in a calorie deficit, which will result in weight loss,” says Tami Smith, CPT, ACE-certified personal trainer and owner of Fit Healthy Momma. Walking can also help boost the metabolism, reduce the risk of chronic disease, and improve moods. 

Read More: 9 Walking Mistakes You Didn’t Know You Were Making

Two is Better Than One

A 2021 study published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health shows that people who do moderate to intense exercise (including walking) for 50 minutes, four days a week, will notice reduced belly fat and overall weight loss.

However, many people don’t have a full hour a day to dedicate to walking. Fortunately, the walk can be split up. In a 2019 study in the journal Obesity, participants who took two 25-minute walks almost every day lost more weight than the ones walking 50 minutes at once. (Both groups followed the same diet.) 

Movement Throughout the Day

Another study in Obesity supports the idea it’s better to spread exercise out over the day. The 2023 research analyzed two groups. One was given strategies for behavioral dietary weight loss and structured exercise regimes. The other was instructed on behavioral dietary weight loss as well as how to increase movement throughout the day. After six months, the latter group lost more weight than the other and kept more of it off at the follow-up a year later.

As such, turning a sedentary lifestyle into an active one isn’t just about getting a gym membership. It’s about increasing movement throughout the day, and walking is a simple way to achieve that. 

Burning Calories from Walking

“Calorie burn from walking depends on several factors, including age, weight, sex, walking pace and difficulty of your walking course,” says Alex Davis, co-creator of Ryan and Alex Duo Life. “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. Over the course of a week, this means targeting 10,000 steps a day.” Overall, the faster you walk, the more calories you will burn.

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How to Burn More Calories While Walking

1. Speed-walk. “Walking speed directly affects your calorie burn. Picking up your pace from a stroll (2 mph) to a moderate walk (3 mph) burns 33% more calories,” says Davis.
2. Walk uphill.
3. Listen to upbeat music.
4. Hike on uneven terrain to engage different types of muscles.
5. Switch between walking and running/power walking. “It involves running for a short period of time, without extremely tiring yourself, and taking a ‘break’ by walking, and repeating this for the rest of the route,” says personal trainer and marathon runner Andrea Chapman.
6. Wear a weighted vest while walking for faster weight loss.
7. Maintain good form and posture while tightening the glutes and abdominal muscles. This can help build strength and prevent injury.
8. Add some resistance training to the walk, such as beginning a route with lunges, squats, pushups, planks, burpees, tricep dips, etc.
9. Stretch before and after to warm up/cool down your muscles and prevent injuries.

How to Add Walks to Your Daily Routine

It may feel overwhelming to try to incorporate walks into an already busy schedule. But remember, it’s better to be active throughout the day as opposed to taking a single walk. (However, if that’s what you can manage, go for it.) All types of movement count as physical activity and you may be walking more than you think. Use a pedometer or fitness tracker and log your daily step count in a notebook or on a calendar. This will help track your weight loss progress and encourage you to continue walking. Start small and slowly increase the amount you walk. Try different routines such as:

• Joining a walking group
• Taking walks after dinner or on lunch break
• Have walking meetings with a colleague instead of at a desk
• Walk with family members
• Invite a friend to walk instead of meeting for coffee or lunch
• Do errands on foot
• Take the stairs instead of the elevator
• Walk instead of wait. For instance, if you arrive early to an appointment, walk around the block instead of sitting in the waiting room.
• Walk to work — or park your car further away. Or get off the bus a stop early and walk the rest of the route
• Change up your walking route — look for local parks, hills with scenery, pretty neighborhoods, and bustling city streets

Read More: How 15 Minutes Of Walking Per Day Can Change Your Body