Can Walking Cause You To Lose Weight

My college had a long outdoor stairwell known as “the steps.” I climbed “the steps” daily between classes to clear my mind and stay active. This experience inspired me to learn all the benefits of walking.

Weight loss is just one of the many walking benefits. Losing or maintaining a healthy weight is the motivation to start walking.

Your blood delivers oxygen and nutrients throughoutyour body and removes wastes. Poor circulation means your arteries, the blood vessels that carry blood from your heart to your muscles and organs, are blocked or narrowed.

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Generally, your extremities are the first to suffer from poor circulation as they are the farthest from your heart. Peripheral artery disease (PAD) is when your extremities, arms, and legs don’t get enough blood (1). The lack of oxygen to your muscles causes pain, fatigue, weakness, or numbness, especially in your hands and feet.

When you exercise, your muscles need more oxygen. If you have healthy circulation, blood flow increases to your muscles. If you have poor circulation, your arteries can’t expand to increase blood flow to your muscles.

Walking a long distance with poor circulation can cause pain in your leg muscles, known as claudication (1). This pain should go away after resting. However, your body becomes more efficient every time you walk or exercise.

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One sign of poor circulation is high blood pressure. Blood pressure is the force of blood pressing against the walls of your arteries (2). High blood pressure, or hypertension, is when your blood pressure is too high, forcing your heart to work harder to pump blood.

Exercise causes high blood pressure but only for the duration of your workout. Regular exercise forces your body to adapt by making blood flow more efficient and arteries more flexible. This means that exercise lowers your resting blood pressure.

Walk until it’s uncomfortable, then rest. Start walking again when your pain goes away. Gradually walk further or longer, and your circulation should improve.

Amazing Health Benefits Of Evening Walk

A calorie is the heat needed to raise the temperature of one gram of water by 1°C (5). A calorie is a measure of the energy in the food that you eat. You need calories, along with other nutrients, to fuel your body. However, your body stores excess calories as fat (6).

Fortunately, you can burn excess calories with physical activity (7, 8). One of the easiest ways to burn calories is to walk daily, especially after meals. Walking helps you lose weight and decreases your risk factor for severe health problems (9).

Depending on gender and weight, walking one mile (1.6 km) burns about 100 calories(10). But how does walking compare to running for calorie burning?

How To Use Walking For Weight Loss

Walking and running burn calories, but walking is something you can do every day and for far longer. Also, it’s easier on your joints.

Visceral fat surrounds your vital organs, such as your liver, pancreas, and intestines, and can increase your risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease (12, 13).

In one study, 20 obese women who walked three times a week for 50 to 70 minutes dropped their waist circumference by 1.1 inches (2.8 cm) and cut 1.5% of their body fat (16).

Reasons Walking For Weight Loss Works

Walking helps you build and preserve muscle which helps you maintain your metabolic rate. Walking helps build muscles in three main ways.

Muscle is more metabolically active than fat, helping you burn calories throughout the day. But exercises that preserve muscle, such as walking, can help maintain or improve your metabolic rate and keep off the extra weight (18, 19, 20, 21).

The National Diabetes Education Program, run by the National Institute of Health, estimates that 79 million Americans are pre-diabetic. Pre-diabetes means your fasting blood sugar is higher than average, and you are at a greater risk of diabetes.

Before And After Pictures

Diabetes is a disease in which blood sugar (glucose) is too high (22). Blood sugar comes from your food, and it’s your body’s primary energy source.

Insulin, a hormone your pancreas produces, unlocks your cells to receive blood sugar for energy use. High fasting blood sugar generally means that your body doesn’t produce enough insulin or you have insulin resistance. Insulin resistance means that your cells have become less responsive to insulin.

Even though your blood sugar levels remain high, your cells are starving for energy. Further, remaining blood sugar can cause serious health problems such as heart disease and stroke (23).

Is Walking Enough To Lose Weight?

The National Walkers’ Health Study tested 33, 060 runners and 15, 945 walkers. Runners and walkers reduced their risk of diabetes by about 12% (24).

Interestingly, this study found that runners and walkers overestimate how long they exercise and sustain their activity. Because most studies estimate exercise dose by time and intensity, the researchers argue that the actual health benefits of exercise are underestimated.

When you eat, you receive an influx of blood sugar. And any blood sugar that your insulin can’t escort into your cells remains in your bloodstream. Walking after meals helps burn your post-meal excess blood sugar.

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One study of seniors found three 15-minute walks after each meal were as effective at lowering blood sugar levels over 24 hours as one 45-minute walk at the same pace (25).

The last meal of the day tends to be the largest. If you don’t burn off excess energy before bed, your blood sugar levels remain high until morning when you eat and raise them again. Therefore, after dinner is the best time to walk.

Regular exercise, such as walking, can improve your mood. Further, you will likely continue if you enjoy an activity and recognize its benefits.

Walking Vs Running: Which Is Better For Weight Loss?

For example, studies have found that exercise reduces anxiety and depression (27). Exercise has positive effects on mood in both healthy and unhealthy people. But walking has an even more significant impact on those with anxiety and depression, as they have the most potential for change.

The best exercises for improving your mood are aerobic exercises that use large muscle groups, such as jogging, swimming, cycling, or walking, at moderate or low intensity (27). Further, exercise can reduce depression and anxiety in just one session.

Exercise releases endorphins. Endorphins have an analgesic effect, lowering your perception of pain and promoting positive feelings like morphine or a “runner’s high” (29).

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Studies have found that if you enjoy an exercise, you are likelier to continue it (30, 31, 32) Unless it’s too physically demanding (31).

Only about 20% of overweight individuals who lose at least 10% of their body weight keep it off (33). Fortunately, individuals who lose weight for two to five years have a greater chance of long-term success.

Regular exercise, such as walking, is one of the best predictors of long-term weight loss success (34). Exercise increases your energy expenditure and helps set your energy balance for weight loss and maintenance.

Walk Into Weight Loss And Health

Exercises such as walking for thirty minutes a day can help you maintain your weight loss, but exercising longer significantly impacts your weight loss (34).

Walking 30 minutes daily helps you maintain a healthy weight after losing weight. But if you want to lose weight, you should walk for about 1 hour daily.

A recent study found that you must walk at least 150 minutes a week, or 75 minutes of jogging, to maintain your current weight (35). Also, those who have lost or are trying to lose weight should walk 200 to 300 minutes weekly (35, 36).

Full Body Walking Benefits, According To Doctors And Trainers

Another study found that those who exercised longer were more successful at maintaining their weight loss than those who exercised for a shorter time (37). The good news is that walking is more comfortable to maintain for a longer time, and you can do it every day.

Most studies and experts recommend walking at least 150 minutes (about 2.5 hours) weekly. However, if you walk even longer, you get even more health benefits. Remember that the benefits of exercise are underestimated.

One hundred fifty minutes a week is about 21 minutes a day or about one mile (1.6km) per day or seven miles (11.26km) per week. So aim to walk at least a mile per day on average. You can walk faster to reach a mile sooner or walk slower and enjoy the walk.

Can You Lose Weight By Walking An Hour A Day?

Your body burns sugars stored as fuel for about the first half-hour of exercise. After these stores are used, your body burns fat from your fat cells for fuel. So one long walk is better for burning fat than several short walks that add up to the same amount of time.

Running, or walking quickly, burns more calories per hour, but it burns the same per mile. So the quicker you walk, the sooner you burn off stored energy and start burning fat.

If you have the time, a long walk will burn as much fat as a short faster walk or jog. You are active when walking, even at a slow pace, and being active is always better than sitting.

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Plan a short walk after each meal to burn off extra calories and prevent your blood sugar from spiking. Also, plan one long walk daily for at least 30 minutes briskly. If you don’t have time for a long walk, plan a few five to ten-minute walks throughout the day,

You know that walking can help you lose