Walking To Lose Weight When Obese

This article was co-authored by Monica Morris. Monica Morris is an ACE (American Council on Exercise) Certified Personal Trainer based in the San Francisco Bay Area. With over 15 years of fitness training experience, Monica started her own physical training practice and gained her ACE Certification in 2017. Her workouts emphasize proper warm-ups, cool-downs, and stretching techniques.

Exercise is an important part of weight loss. In fact, it's difficult to lose weight or maintain weight loss without physical activity.

Even though walking isn't considered a high-intensity exercise, it's a great activity to add to your daily routine to help increase your overall calorie burn and improve your fitness levels. If you just add 30 minutes of walking daily, you can burn up to 150 extra calories daily.

Overweight Woman Walking To Lose Weight Hi Res Stock Photography And Images

Plus, walking is a lower intensity exercise that's suitable for most people unlike running or jogging. Add in regular walking to your exercise routine to help you lose weight.

This article was co-authored by Monica Morris. Monica Morris is an ACE (American Council on Exercise) Certified Personal Trainer based in the San Francisco Bay Area. With over 15 years of fitness training experience, Monica started her own physical training practice and gained her ACE Certification in 2017. Her workouts emphasize proper warm-ups, cool-downs, and stretching techniques. This article has been viewed 37, 628 times.

If you want to walk to lose weight, commit to walking 30 minutes per day. You might try joining a walking group when you get started, which can help bolster your spirits and provide support if you need it. When you walk, keep your shoulders back and head up. Lead with your heel when you step forward before rocking onto your toe to avoid injury. Once you’re comfortable doing this, increase your speed to burn more fat, and aim to walk for 45 minutes per day. No matter how quickly or long you walk, make sure to give yourself 1 to 2 days per week off so you don't get injured. To learn more from our Personal Trainer co-author, such as how to incorporate dietary changes to help you lose weight, keep reading the article!We’re going to answer these questions with simple walking to lose weight charts and graphs. Then, we’ll leave you informed, with an 8-week walking plan to achieve your goals. 

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Walking and general daily movement are some of the healthiest activities you can do for your body. But you already knew that.

In this article, we’ll share how much you have to walk to lose weight, walking tips for weight loss, the benefits of walking, and our 8-Week Walking Plan for Weight Loss.

There are several walking to lose weight charts in this article that will help you. The first are key numbers to remember.

Obese Walking Stock Photos, Pictures & Royalty Free Images

To lose one pound, you have to create a deficit of 3, 500 calories. In the metric system, this more or less equates to losing 0.5 kg by creating a deficit of 3, 850 calories.

Ideally, calculating your calorie deficit begins by knowing how many calories you consume a day as well as how much you exercise. We walk you through how to find these numbers in our article, ‘30-Day Weight Loss Challenge.’

But, if nothing else changes with your daily diet and your weight is pretty stable, you can guess that walking off 3, 500 calories a week results in 1 lb. of weight loss.

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The speed at which you should lose weight depends on multiple factors. As we share in our article, ‘How Long Should it Take to Lose 20 Pounds, ’ the answer could be anywhere between 0.5 to 5 lbs. a week if you’re trying to lose 10 to 100 lbs., respectively.

While this may seem light, it is our recommendation to never drop too much too fast so that your hormone levels remain balanced to keep the weight off long-term. No one wants to experience the dreaded yo-yo effect.

So, do you know how much weight you want to lose per week? The next step is to figure out how much time and distance you’ll need to walk to lose it.

How Fast Should You Walk For Fitness And Weight Loss?

According to my Apple Watch, it takes me 2 hours, 5 miles (8 km) at a moderate pace, and just over 10, 000 steps to walk off 500 calories. If I did that 7 days a week, I’d reach a 3, 500 calorie deficit to lose 1 lb. a week.

If you have an Apple Watch, FitBit, or MiBand, you’re a step ahead. Wearables like these are very convenient and share your walking pace, distance walked, heart rate, and calories burned in real-time.

If you don’t have a wearable, refer to our rule-of-thumb “walking for weight loss” charts below. Just know that these are approximate measurements (just like all the calculations online) for reference.

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If you want accurate numbers, you really need a fitness watch. We highly recommend the MiBand watch because it’s far cheaper than a FitBit or Apple watch, does the same things, and is high quality.

Lastly, if you’re wondering how much you need to walk according to your BMI, we wrote a separate article (with more charts) for you. 

If you weigh more, your weekly goals will be lower. If you weigh less than 190 lbs. or 86 kg, your weekly goals will be higher.

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While walking seems relatively simple, it’s not always easy. Perhaps you’re dealing with an injury, or simply can’t find the time to walk every day.

The faster you walk, the more calories you’ll burn. How much more depends on the pace. As you near a jog, the calorie burn increases even faster.

This might be a relief after seeing the “walking to lose weight” charts up above. While it’s ideal, we don’t always have one and a half hours to walk every day.

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Going from a stroll to a moderate walk only marginally increases your calorie burn. Going from 2 miles per hour to 3 miles per hour burns 33% more calories.

However, when you up the ante to a brisk walk at 4 miles per hour (definitely a walk, not quite a jog yet) you’ll double your calorie burn.

Where you walk also plays a role in how much weight you can lose while walking. The charts above show calories burned when walking on a flat surface – like on a track or a flat sidewalk.

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In addition to increasing your heart rate and workload, hill walks are great for your muscles. They activate your calf, glute, and hamstring muscles even more than a flat walk, without any added risk of injury.

Note, though, that some people find it hard on their knees to walk downhill. If that’s you, ease into it and shorten your strides. Or opt to walk on an incline on a treadmill only. That way, you only have to go up, and not come down!

We personally love the experience of walking with our FiveFingers. Yeah, those are the funky toe shoes. You can feel the ground below you, which is a fun experience, and they promote a shorter, more natural stride. 

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Plus, we never have to worry about the weather, because if it is muddy and rainy, we simply throw our shoes in the washing machine. We share more information (and a special offer) in the below article. 

Did you know that are apps that will pay you for your steps? After using Evidation for the last 3 months, they just sent me $20.

We challenge you to step up your game with this extra incentive! There’s nothing to lose but everything to gain, especially since our favorite fitness app (Evidation) is free and pays us real money for our daily step counts. Win-win-win.

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Otherwise, download an audiobook or podcast. We prefer walking like this over music because you can still hear the traffic around you. Plus, if it’s a really good book, you can habit stack by only allowing yourself to listen while walking.

Use a location sharing app if walking alone. There are many apps, but we prefer to use Google Maps. Yep, the same app you already have!

On the app, simply log in, click on your photo, and you’ll see the “Location Sharing” feature. As long as your partner has the Google Maps app as well, you can share to them.

How Walking Can Help You Lose Weight And Belly Fat

Nothing unnecessarily cuts short a walk than not having water. Plus, hydration is critical for weight loss since it boosts digestion and metabolism. So get your body working double time and grab your Nalgene!

If you’re serious about tracking your walks for weight loss, a wearable like an Apple Watch, FitBit, or MiBand are extremely helpful.

Since we know that calorie burn changes from person to person, it’s helpful to learn your statistics like calories burned, distance walked, steps taken, heart rate, and even your course’s elevation change.

Does Walking Help In Weight Loss? If Yes, Then How Much Should One Walk? How Much Time Will It Take To Lose Weight By Simply Walking?

You’re putting in the work to lose the weight, and we highly recommend you put in the work to track your weight loss journey. The scale is helpful, but it’s not enough.

Without benchmarking your numbers — weight, body fat percentage, waist-hip ratio, measurements, etc. — how do you know what you’re doing is working?

In our article, ‘Measuring for Weight Loss, ’ we share the best metrics

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