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Walking is a great way to stay active and lose weight. It's also one of the best ways to improve mood, reduce stress, and promote healthy sleep patterns — but did you know that walking can also help you burn calories too?
In this post, we will explore how many calories walking burns and which types of activities are best for burning the most calories while being easy on the joints.
Walking and Calories
If you're trying to find a way to burn calories and lose weight, walking is one of the best exercises. Walking is a low-impact exercise that can help you shed pounds while toning your body, and it's easy: You can do it anywhere and at any time.
Walking is an effective way to burn calories and reduce belly fat. The CDC recommends that adults get 150 minutes of moderate physical activity every week — which equates to about 30 minutes per day, five days per week (or more).
For example: If you weigh 150 pounds at 3 mph over a mile walk, you will burn 112 calories; if you weigh 200 pounds at 5 mph over a 1-mile walk, you will burn 216 calories; etc.
How Many Calories can Walking Burn?
If you want to get the most out of your walking workout, try to walk at a pace that's brisk enough to cause shortness of breath and make it difficult to talk.
Walking at this pace will burn between 90 and 120 calories per hour. That's about as many calories as a 140-pound person burns off during sex, which means you can use your walk as an excuse for getting quick action if you're looking for one.
There are many benefits from walking besides weight loss: It can reduce high blood pressure, lower cholesterol levels and increase bone density (which protects against osteoporosis). In fact, walking just 15 minutes each day may help prevent heart disease. If you do it regularly enough — four times per week is recommended — you could even live longer.
More You Weigh, More Calories You Burn
The more you weigh, the more calories you burn. Of course, the faster you walk and the steeper the grade, the tougher your walk. So if you're hiking a steep trail in hot weather with heavy loads on your back, you can expect to burn quite a few calories.
If a lighter person walks at 4 miles per hour (mph), they will burn fewer calories on average. That's not much, but if they were to climb up an incline of 10% grade on flat ground while wearing a backpack loaded with 20 pounds of weight (the equivalent of holding two full grocery bags), they will burn 150 more calories.
What About Walking on Incline?
There's a reason why people say that it's easier to walk downhill than it's to walk uphill.
Walking uphill requires more effort, which in turn burns more calories. If you've tried walking up a steep hill, you know how difficult it can be — but if your goal is weight loss, this is good news.
The amount of calories burned depends on the grade and duration of your walk. That means if you burned 100 calories while walking on flat ground for 30 minutes, you will burn around 110–140 calories by going up instead.
Does Walking on Decline Burn Fat?
Walking downhill will also help you burn more calories than walking on a flat surface, as it requires you to fight gravity as you go down. The steeper the grade of the slope, the higher your calorie-burning potential.
If you're interested in boosting your fat loss efforts without straining your knees or ankles — that's why we recommend using an indoor treadmill — consider using an incline feature to simulate walking uphill instead of doing so in real-life conditions.
What About Walking in Water?
Walking in water also increases resistance and helps build strength in the legs, hips, and glutes. That can also increase caloric expenditure.
The increased calorie burn from water walking can help you lose weight by burning more calories than you would if you were just walking on land. For example, if you typically walk for 30 minutes each morning without any additional resistance, adding three pounds of ankle weights may burn an extra 150 calories.
Benefits of Walking
Here's a look at a few benefits of walking:
- You can walk almost anywhere, at any time, even if you don't have access to a gym or other equipment.
- Walking can help reduce weight and improve cardiovascular fitness, which in turn lowers risk of heart disease and stroke as well as helps prevent diabetes.
- People who walk regularly also tend to live longer than those who do not — a fact backed up by many studies.
Takeaway
Walking is a great way to burn calories, lose weight and develop some muscle strength.
The more you weigh, the more calories you will burn when walking at a moderate pace or faster. If you want to increase your calorie burn even further, try walking uphill or downhill — which will help increase resistance and build strength in the legs, hips, and glutes.
