Walking is a great low-impact cardio exercise. When you walk, you engage muscles throughout the entire body, making it a productive full-body workout. A daily walking routine can also be a laid-back choice for daily activity because we walk throughout the day, unintentionally burning calories with every step. You can incorporate a brisk walk into your morning routine, get steps in while running errands, or spend time on the treadmill at the gym.
Walking can boost your calorie expenditure, helping you shed both water weight and fat alike. Long-term results may include better muscle definition and overall circumference reduction. As with any workout plan, results may vary. The amount of calories burned by walking will depend on a few factors including metabolism, pace, and more.
However, the most important detail to consider when perfecting your walking routine is consistency. While calories burned per mile walking may vary from person to person, consistency with exercise can be the most powerful tool for success. Learn the ins and outs of walking for calorie expenditure and how to strategically maximize your results.
How Does Walking Burn Calories?
The body is a machine, and we burn calories when each part of the machine works together to move by expending energy. Staying active by walking will promote calorie burn and can keep your metabolism activated for hours into your rest phase. You’ll notice some of the benefits of walking nearly immediately, and others gradually as the habit forms. We burn calories when we walk because the exercise activates physical responses (such as metabolic burn), encourages cardiovascular effort to get the blood pumping, and engages muscles with a high energy demand.
How Many Calories Can You Burn Walking?
The amount of calories burned per mile walking will depend on a few biological and personal factors, such as:
- Genetic factors: Your genetic makeup among other factors determine your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR), which is simply the number of calories your body needs per day to perform basic functions like breathing, circulation, and cell production. Someone with a higher BMR burns more energy at rest, making it easier to shred the calories overall.
- Starting weight and body mass: Your starting body composition will play a role in how you burn calories moving forward. Because muscle tissue requires more energy to maintain, those with higher body mass can have a faster calorie expenditure.
- Hormone regulation: Your biology will determine how your body produces certain hormones, food energy regulation, appetite control, and fat storage. Hormones like leptin, insulin, and the thyroid hormones will affect how the body burns calories due to the influence over the metabolic and lymphatic systems. An imbalance in these hormones can affect appetite, sleep, and even inhibit weight loss progress.
- Age and gender: Men have a higher muscle-to-fat ratio which can boost calorie expenditure and make it easier to shred fat and see leaner muscles. Metabolism also slows down with age which means that seeing visible progress may get harder with age.
- Fitness level: Living an active lifestyle can make it easier to burn calories on a walk. A consistent fitness routine can naturally boost your BMR, so overtime an active person may notice more drastic changes as their body adapts to the higher caloric burn.
Other Factors That Affect How Many Calories Are Burned Walking
There are also controllable factors that can impact how many calories you’ll burn by walking as an exercise. You should consider a few environmental details when assessing your calorie expenditure for the day:
- Pace: The average walking speed is about 2-3 mph. A light walk at this rate may not get your heart beating or your blood pumping because it is your baseline for everyday movement. To increase the benefits of walking for weight loss, walk at a more brisk pace than your average stride. Speed up to about 4 mph.
- Terrain: Walking uphill will engage more leg and core muscles, providing enough resistance to increase energy expenditure. Use downhill patches of your walk to cool down and prepare for high-energy bursts of speed walking. Walking through softer surfaces like sand can also engage muscle groups in the legs for stability.
- Posture: Keep your neck and spine properly aligned when taking a walk. You should keep your head up, shoulders back, and core engaged to maximize the effectiveness of walking as a workout. Implementing a swinging arm movement will also engage your upper body muscles, and long strides will strengthen leg muscle engagement. Keeping your posture strict and consistent can help avoid strain or other injuries like muscle tears.
- Weather: Exercising in extreme climates will shock your body, require more energy, and ultimately burn more calories. In the cold weather, your body needs more energy to convert into heat. On the flip side, when it’s cold out, sweating and thermoregulation can also impact calorie expenditure.
Benefits of Walking for Calorie Burning
Walking is a simple way to include more physical activity into your day and boost calorie expenditure without committing to a high-impact, vigorous daily routine. Some additional benefits include:
- Low-intensity workout: Low impact exercises are easier on the joints, making the activity a more comfortable experience that doesn’t strain your body. Because of the light intensity level, walking shouldn’t lead to intense muscle soreness and fatigue unless the body has overexerted for long periods of time.
- Convenience and accessibility: One of the most common reasons people give up on their workout routine is inconvenience. Sometimes, working out can be time-consuming and disruptive to your day. You can take brisk walks on your time throughout the day, and it requires little preparation or cool down time.
- Promotes weight loss: Committing to a consistent walking routine can help promote an individual’s weight loss goals when paired with a balanced diet. Walking contributes to calorie expenditure, so staying active during the day can help boost the necessary calorie deficit to lose weight.
- Mood enhancer: Going out for a walk will give you the chance to appreciate sunshine, fresh air, and greenery in the area. It has been proven that spending time outdoors will boost your overall mood and contribute to destressing the body by releasing endorphins.
- Supports cardiovascular health: Regular walking can help strengthen the heart, lower blood pressure, and improve circulation. Walking is considered one of the frontline efforts in reducing your risk of heart disease. Keeping up with low-impact exercise like walking is a pivotal step in altering your general health.
- Increases muscle strength and stamina: A daily walking routine can build functional strength overtime. This makes activities like holding grocery bags or bending down to grab an item feel easier. Moreover, this strength can help your body feel lighter and more grounded. For th elderly (and clumsy), walking as exercise can make a difference in injury or fall prevention.
- Boosts metabolism: Walks are great for boosting metabolism, which can help shred calories during and even after the walk is over. This is known as the “afterburn effect” (or excess post-exercise oxygen consumption, EPOC), which is when your body must work harder to restore back to its rating state. Over time, consistent walking can gradually increase an individual’s resting metabolic rate because of the constant engagement.
Are You Burning Enough Calories While Walking?
How do you know how many calories you’ve burned in a day? Don’t rely on an estimate or flying by the seat of your pants. There are simple tools like a walking calorie counter that can approximate the number of calories burned by using your distance, duration, and walking conditions. There are also apps and jewelry like wristbands and rings that can track fitness information like your speed, heart rate, and calories burned. These tools can take the guesswork out of your daily walking routine.
Maximizing Calorie Burn While Walking
The way you walk will impact the results of your effort. A relaxed and leisurely stroll will not be as productive as a more focused and intense power walk. Here are some choices you can make on every walk to maximize your calorie burn:
- Timing bursts of speed: Walking in intervals of high speed and relaxed speed will elevate the heart rate and promote the cardiovascular benefits of walking for weight loss. Try 2 minute bursts of high-speed walking (3-4 mph) followed by 1 minute of a slower recovery pace (2-3 mph).
- Walking uphill or upstairs: Walking uphill engages more muscle groups tha walking on a flat or downhill path. This incline can promote leg strength and stamina. Climbing is actually considered a high-impact exercise because it engages large muscle groups, so taking the stairs whenever possible can definitely boost your daily efforts for caloric expenditure.
- Stay well-nourished and hydrated: Eating a balanced diet improves daily performance with physical activity because the body has more fuel for effort. Staying hydrated and nourished will lead to enhanced endurance and smoother recovery for the body post-workout. Keep water on you for walks and consider a light snack before heading out. Never take a walk when you haven’t eaten or drinken anything for the day, yet.
- Treat your body with respect: Adding excess strain on the body will do more harm than good for weight loss efforts. Because low-impact exercise can be so relaxing, it can be hard to register when you’ve gone too far in your efforts for the day. Warming up and cooling down with stretches will help prepare the body for a work out and release tightened muscles after the fact.
How to Increase Calories Burned Walking
It’s always best to look for new and innovative ways to improve. Once you are comfortable with your walking routine, try shaking it up with a fresh exercise element that can also boost your calorie expenditure. Here are some of our top tips for increasing your calories burned by walking:
- Walking with dumbbells
- Walking with light ankle weights
- Try incorporating walking lunges
- For posture, try arm swings and high knees
- Deep breathing to activate diaphragm and other core muscles
- Heel raises as a warm-up stretch
Incorporate More Walking into Your Lifestyle
Using a car or public transport can become a quick and convenient habit that is hard to break. In many cases, the roads even favor drivers over pedestrians by not providing sidewalks or safe crossings, ultimately creating an incentive to drive or use public transportation. These are some casual ways to incorporate more walking into your daily life without replacing any part of your daily routine:
- Find a local walking group in your community: Walking may feel more enjoyable as a social activity. Let the time fly while you stride by making friends and participating in a local walking group. Not only can a group make the experience more fun and relaxed, but it can also keep you motivated and accountable. It’s harder to skip a day when you have people counting on you to join!
- Park in the back of the parking lot: You can make laid-back choices such as parking in the back of the parking lot to give yourself more chances to walk. While it is instinctive to take the closest spot to the store entrance, parking in the back can add an average of 50-100 steps to your daily count.
- Walking with a pet: Keep company and walk with your four-legged friend! Dog owners are more likely to meet physical activity guidelines for adults because they have more of an incentive to get outside and walk. Going on a walk with your dog can be a powerful exercise, and it doesn’t require any special equipment other than a leash.
- Set a daily goal: Keeping yourself accountable is the best way to assure that you’re meeting your own expectations and putting in the work. By setting a daily goal for steps or walking duration, you give yourself a baseline to strive for that you can always alter and adjust. Most importantly, a goal gives you a finish line at the end of the race and that fact alone can be motivating.
It doesn’t matter how, when, or why you do it, just get out there and walk! Walking for fitness can promote impactful health benefits, blank, and contribute to weight loss. By adding simple and realistic walking opportunities into your daily routine, you can burn calories without even thinking about it.
