Walking: The Unsung Hero of Fat Loss
Forget sprinting from one end of the gym to the other. Walking stands out as an excellent sport anyone can practice to stay healthy and in shape. It’s gentle, making it ideal if you want regular exercise but your fitness level is on the fragile side. The real kicker? Despite its mild reputation, walking is impressively effective for losing weight.
Yes, walking melts away fat and burns calories—lots of them! For example, walking for an hour at 5 km/h (about 3.1 mph) burns close to 240 calories. And if you up your pace? The numbers only get better.
Scientifically-Proven Fat-Burning
What makes walking so efficient? Many doctors, including Dr. Stéphane Cascua, have studied its fat-burning power. As he explains:
“When you walk, you burn 45% fat compared to 35% when jogging and 25% when running near the point of breathlessness.” (Le Sport pour maigrir)
So, walking actually burns a larger proportion of fat than faster activities! Science backs this up as well. A 2014 study published in Physical Activity and Nutrition found that walking three times per week for 12 weeks was very effective at reducing belly fat—especially in older women. Not bad for something you can do in sneakers!
Boost Your Walk: Go Faster, Burn More
Just walking already helps you lose weight, but if you want to “accelerate” your slimming results, here’s how. Experts from the fitness world recommend a few simple tweaks that, combined, turn your walk into a full-on fat-melting session.
“You have to speed up your walking pace to really see the benefits on the scale, because a faster pace helps you burn stored body fat, and that’s what leads to weight loss,”
confirms Steven Stonehouse, a certified running coach, to Eat This.
And the numbers speak for themselves:
- Walk at 6 km/h (3.7 mph): Burn 300 calories in an hour
- Walk at 7 km/h (4.3 mph): Burn 360 calories in an hour
The faster you walk, the more calories you torch. Simple as that.
Tips for Taking Fat-Burning Up a Notch
Some coaches even advise alternating walking speeds to create what’s known as interval training. The idea? Walk at your maximum speed for a set time (say, 30 seconds), then switch to a slower pace for another 30 seconds—then repeat!
As Tom Holland, author of The Micro-Workout Plan: Get the Body You Want Without the Gym in 15 Minutes or Less a Day, puts it:
“By varying your walking speed and especially adding faster intervals, you’ll increase your heart rate and calorie expenditure, helping you shed more pounds over time.”
Other ways to intensify your walking routine:
- Add resistance by carrying weights: Whether it’s a weighted backpack, small dumbbells, or ankle/wrist weights, a bit of extra load will make your walk harder, increase your heart rate, and help tone your body—especially your core if you actively engage your abs as you walk.
- Take your walk outdoors: Outdoors, the terrain isn’t always flat—sometimes it’s a bit sloped. Changes in incline make your muscles work harder and increase the intensity as well as calorie burn.
- Walk on varied surfaces: The more incline and more surface changes (hills, sand, gravel), the more your legs and core have to work, the more calories you burn, and the higher your heart rate goes.
In summary: walking might just be the most underestimated fat-burning exercise out there—and by picking up the pace, mixing up your speed, or adding a hill or some weights, you can melt fat even faster. No sprinting required—unless, of course, you’re running for the last cookie!
John is a curious mind who loves to write about diverse topics. Passionate about sharing his thoughts and perspectives, he enjoys sparking conversations and encouraging discovery. For him, every subject is an invitation to discuss and learn.
