There are many different forms of exercise to lose weight. Many of them are pretty intense and involve quite a lot of stress impact on your joints. And then there’s walking.
Walking is the most natural form of exercise that exists. After all, you’ve been doing it your whole life. Many people think that walking is not a strenuous enough form of exercise to lose weight. The reality is that walking can be an effective weight loss and calorie burn strategy. But you need to be realistic about your rate of fat loss and consistent in your exercise performance.
In this article, I’ll present you with walking to lose weight chart. I’ll provide you with a range of walking workout options based on your goals and current weight. I’ll also discuss what else you should do to support your weight loss walking workout.
The Basics of Weight Loss
There have been more words written about losing body fat and achieving a healthy weight than virtually any other subject. Yet, at its core, getting rid of unwanted fat comes down to just five words …
burn more calories than consume.
That means ending each day in what is called a negative caloric balance. Think of your body as a bank account. Unlike with a real bank account, your goal should be to end each day with more withdrawals than deposits!
When you do that, you are forcing your body to make up the difference by burning your energy reserves. Those energy reserves are your stored body fat. [1]
For weight maintenance, your calorie intake and calorie output should be about the same.
Eating Fewer Calories to Lose Weight
The best way to create a caloric deficit is to eat fewer calories than your body needs to sustain itself. You need to do this with a balanced diet.
Everything you do, from breathing to searching your big toe, requires energy in the form of calories. We all need a certain amount of calories each day to provide that energy. It changes depending on our weight, age, gender, and activity level. Go here to find out what your daily maintenance calorie level is.
Now that you know what your maintenance level is, you should reduce it by 250 calories per day to create a negative calorie balance.
Walking to Lose Weight
The second best way to lose weight is to enhance your daily negative calorie balance by exercising to burn calories. Walking is not the most effective form of calories in terms of calories burned per minute. But it is one of the safest forms of exercise you can do.
The key to successful weight loss is consistency. That makes safe exercise like walking very valuable. There is no point, after all, in doing high-intensity sprinting workouts for a couple of weeks and then pulling a hamstring and not being able to exercise for the next six months.
A better strategy is to use a moderate-intensity form of exercise that is sustainable.
Let’s now analyze a few numbers …
- To lose a pound of body fat, you have got to lose 3500 calories
- You will lose around 90 calories from a mile of walking
- A mile of walking is about the same as 2000 steps
- It will take about 20 minutes to walk a mile at an average pace
Those numbers are averages based on my analysis of several dozen of my personal training students. The average age of these people was 45 years of age. [2]
Walking for weight loss has extra health benefits, including reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease, improving mental health, and strengthening the lower body muscles.
How Much Weight Should You Lose
Most people want to lose too much weight too fast. As a result, they often go on diets that are too restrictive and do exercise that is not sustainable. inevitably they crash and burn. Many people who follow this pattern end up putting on more weight than they had at the start.
The best strategy is to lose weight slowly and consistently. you should only want to lose fat, rather than muscle mass. My suggestion is to set the goal of losing one pound of fat per week.
To lose a pound of fat per week you need to have a calorie deficit of 3500 calories each week. That breaks down to a 500-calorie deficit every day. We have already talked about losing 250 calories per day by eating fewer calories.
That leaves 250 calories per day to be lost through your walking workouts.
Walking to Lose Weight Chart
Now that we have a walking workout calorie loss goal, here is a chart to help you simplify what you need to be focusing on …
| Goal Per Day | Goal Per Week | |
| Calories | 250 calories | 1750 calories |
| Distance | 2.8 miles | 19.6 miles |
| Steps Taken | 5600 | 39,200 |
| Time Exercising | 56 minutes | 392 minutes |
Chart Analysis
From our chart, we can see that, in order to lose a pound of fat per week, you need to do two things …
- Reduce your caloric intake by 250 calories per day
- Walk for 56 minutes per day at a walking speed of 20 minutes per day
So, if you can get into the habit of walking for exercise for basically an hour per day, every day, and are able to maintain your caloric deficit, you will be able to lose a pound of fat every day.
Keep that up and you will lose 52 pounds of fat every year. That is a lot of weight. But it all depends on consistency.
To help yourself to be consistent with your walking workouts, schedule them for a time of day that you can stick to. it should also be a time when you are not likely to be distracted. For many people, this is first thing in the morning.
I find it helpful to start your walk when you leave your front door rather than driving to your walking venue. This saves time and allows you to get straight into your workout. So, if you can walk around your neighborhood.
Faster Walking
Walking for an hour each day is quite a commitment. You can increase your calorie burn and reduce your exercise time by walking faster. For example, if you increase your walking pace from 2.8 to 3.8 miles per hour, you will be able to burn around 33% more calories.
That, in turn, cuts down your exerciser time by a third. that means that you will only have to be walking for 40 minutes per day by walking at a relatively brisk pace.
Frequently Asked Questions
How fast is a slow, moderate, or brisk walking pace?
A slow walking pace is considered to be around two miles an hour or thirty minutes per mile. A moderate pace is around three miles an hour, while a brisk pace is about hour miles per hour.
Is walking for weight loss effective for belly fat?
Yes, walking for weight loss will burn calories from all over the body. You cannot spot reduce body fat so a general cardio burner like walking is better than abdominal exercises like crunches or sit-ups.
How high should my heart rate be when walking for weight loss?
Your heart rate should go up slightly when you are walking for exercise, it should still allow you to carry out a normal conversation.
Summary
Walking is an effective, safe form of exercise for weight loss. As well as increasing your calorie burn, walking will improve your cardiovascular fitness to help prevent heart disease.
Set a weight loss goal of one pound per week. Couple your walking exercise routine with a balanced diet that keeps you in a negative calorie balance. Do this consistently and you will regularly lose body fat.
References
- Strasser B, Spreitzer A, Haber P. Fat loss depends on energy deficit only, independently of the method for weight loss. Ann Nutr Metab. 2007;51(5):428-32. doi: 10.1159/000111162. Epub 2007 Nov 20. PMID: 18025815.
- https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/simple-math-equals-easy-weight-loss#:~:text=With%20that%20number%2C%20you%20can,and%20how%20fast%20you%20walk.)
