Walking is such a simple exercise you even get to choose how much weight you want to lose and how quickly you want to lose it.
To lose a pound of fat you must burn off approximately 3500 calories with an activity or reduce your caloric intake by 3500 calories.
This number is accumulative over hours, days, weeks, months, and years.
For this example I will just illustrate calories burned by walking.
Burn Calories by Walking
If you are a 47 year old female who weighs 195 lbs and you walk for 30 min at a moderate pace you will burn around 176 calories.
A moderate pace is how you walk when you are in a hurry to get someplace. Fast enough to be covering some real ground but still able to breath and carry on a conversation (although you will be breathing harder).
This means that after 20 walks you will lose a pound of fat.
Doesn’t seem like much but that’s 18 pounds of fat lost over the year. Plus you are improving your lungs and heart and muscle tone.
Do you want to lose weight faster?
Go faster!
By picking up the pace a little bit into a brisk walk (catching the bus without quite breaking into a run, kind of walk) at the same numbers for weight and age above you would burn 234 cal in that same 30 minutes.
So every 15 days you will lose a pound or lose over 24 lbs this year.
Here’s the calorie calculator to check out your own stats just make sure you select walking for weight loss on the calculator.
What if you walked twice a day? Thats 48 lbs. Three times? 72 lbs. Just by walking at a brisk pace.
How do you fit in walking three times a day?
Check out the walking weight loss tips below.
Walking weight loss tips
Try walking morning noon and evening. Where does the time to do this come from you ask?
Well, first thing in the morning before you brush your teeth, have your walking clothes and a full glass of water by the bed, drink a glass of water, get dressed and leave the house.
If you set your alarm 30 minutes earlier, or even 20 you will not miss the sleep and all you need to do is leave your front door, walk as quickly as you comfortably can away from your house for 15 minutes. Then turn around and come home.
If you are worried about running into the neighbors just top off with a hat and shades or pull a hoodie over your head.
Lunch time at work same thing, if you have an hour for lunch then leave the office door and turn back after 15 minutes. Here are some other ideas for office exercises.
After dinner rather than sitting in front of the tube leave the house again. This might be a good time to go with the kids, your spouse or get a friend involved.
Really – its only 15 minutes – each way and you are now effectively using walking for fitness and weight loss.
Increase the intensity by walking up hills or adding weights to your walk. For more on this see Walking With Weights.
Benefits of walking for weight loss and fitness
- Walking burns fat, by walking at a moderate pace for about 20 min will put you in the fat burning zone.
- Increase heart functionality
- Reported to reduce the risk of developing breast cancer
- Prevent memory loss
- Reduce the risks associated with diabetes
- Help maintain bone density
- Maintain bowel regularity and reduce the risk of colin cancer
- Increase energy levels
- Increase metabolism and fat loss
- Helps improve mood and battle depression
- Walking is free
- Time to fit it in anywhere
- Even if you want to just walk in place
- Joining a group enhances your social life
- Low impact form of exercise
- Increases muscle tone and strength
- Help to improve core strength and posture
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