Walking for Weight Loss

Walking can be a great way to lose weight if you have physical limitations that prevent you from doing other exercises.

You can still get in a great workout and burn extra calories throughout the week just by walking.

Although this might not be as many calories as running or jogging, these calories can add up by the end of the week and turn into pounds lost.

How Many Calories Do You Burn Walking?

How many calories you burn during any activity, including walking, is determined by a number of factors such as your height, weight, gender, age, etc.

A brisk walk can burn anywhere from 200-600 calories in an hour depending on the factors mentioned above.

Try this calories burned calculator to find out how many calories you burn walking.

How long should you walk to lose weight?

Any amount of additional activity you do in a day can help you lose weight.

A good general starting point is to aim for 30-90 minutes per day depending on your health and fitness level.

How many days a week you walk is also dependent on these factors, but 3-5 days a week can help you burn a significant amount of extra calories and weight by the end of a week.

Tips for Walking for Weight Loss

Just getting up and moving your body by taking a walk is a great place to start.

If you want to increase how many calories you burn during that time and lose weight faster, here are some tips to keep in mind for your walks:

Set aside dedicated walk time

We all know how busy life can get.

Sometimes that means certain activities get pushed aside and never get done.

Planning and setting specific time block to take a walk can help you to feel accountable and make sure you get your walks in.

For other ways to stay motivated and accountable, try these.

Walk more throughout the day.

Having dedicated walks is great, but to lose weight without even thinking about it, try incorporating more walking into your daily life.

Here are a few examples:

• Park further away when shopping
• Walk to the store if it is a mile or less away
• Walk between stores when going multiple places
• Always choose the stairs over an elevator or escalator
• Take more smaller walks after having a meal

Try Using Sweet Sweat

Sweet Sweat is a gel that you would rub on your skin before walking.

I discovered it 5 years ago and have been using it ever since.

It helps to target “slow-to-respond problem areas” (aka my stomach for me), improves circulation, speeds up your warm up, helps reduce muscle fatigue, and speeds up muscle recovery!

I also wear their “waist trimmer” around my stomach which helps increase the benefits mentioned above.

They also have arm and thigh trimmers if those are your problem areas.

You can get it here if this sounds like something you would want to try.

Walk at a faster pace than usual.

A great way to burn even more calories during your walk is to increase the pace.

A slow walking pace burns less calories than a brisk or even fast pace.

You want to be working hard enough during your walk that it is difficult to hold a conversation to get the most out of it.

Walk on a path with hills.

Just as walking faster can increase the intensity so that you lose weight faster, you can also increase the intensity by walking at an incline.

Walking on an incline takes more work and will burn more calories.

It will also take more muscle usage and so as an added bonus it will help you build up your leg muscles.

Double bonus: more muscle mass = higher metabolism = you burn more calories just living!

Here’s a post on other ways to naturally boost your metabolism also!.

Incorporate your arms.

Speaking of muscles, you can also get a slight arm workout and increase your calories burned during your walk just from pumping your arms.

Have you ever seen speed walkers vigorously swinging their arms at a 90 degree angle.

There’s a reason for that!

Doing this can help you burn up to 10% more calories!

Have a goal.

Setting a specific goal will also make sure that you stay accountable and get enough walking in to make a difference and help you lose weight.

Your goal could be minutes, miles, or even steps!

There has been a lot of talk around needing 10,000 steps a day, but this has been found to be a myth and completely ambiguous.

The trend was actually started by a marketing company.

Take your dog for a walk.

If you have a dog, talking them along on your walks can be a great motivator!

Not to mention, great company!

Plus, I don’t know about you, but my pup really forces me to keep the pace up!

Improve your diet.

If you are going to be putting in all this work, the last thing you want to do is negate it with a poor diet.

You cannot out exercise a bad diet!

I personally prefer Flexible Dieting, since it’s well, the most flexible!

30 Day Weight Loss Walking Plan Challenege

Here is a great 30 day walking plan from Bowfelx!

I hope these are able to help you!

Leave a comment below if you have any questions!