All About Walking Calories and Walking To Lose Weight
As you know, weight loss is all about a fine balance between the calories you eat and the calories you burn. One good way to burn calories is to walk.
Walking calories do add up especially if you do it regularly and the good news is that walking to lose weight is just about one of the easiest activities you can incorporate into your lifestyle starting today.
What is more important in Walking Calories – Speed or Distance?
A lot of people often get in confused about whether is more beneficial to walk a longer distance or just to walk faster.
Well, both are important and you will burn more calories if you combine both.
For an average 85kg person, you will burn about 100 Calories per mile that you walk. Walking longer distance is a lot more beneficial on balance.
However if you speed-walk, you will be using a lot more muscle groups along with the fact that you increase your increase your heart rate a lot more compared to a stroll. The net result is that you burn extra calories per mile.
Why…because the exercise intensity is more and you are doing more work or covering a longer distance within a shorter time frame.
Is There a Walking Formula For Calories Burned Per Mile?
Yes there is and this makes your calories burned calculation very easy. Get this and you will never be confused as to how much walking calories you expend per mile.
So what is this walking calorie formula?
Here it is: 0.53 X Your Body Weight (in pounds)
So if you weigh say 160 lbs, then the amount of calories you burn per mile will be 0.53 X 160 = 84.8 Calories
This formula applies to walking speed of 3 miles per hour. Faster speed implies you use up more calories.
How Much Time Should You Spend Walking To Lose Weight?
The more time you spend walking the better. We understand that not everyone is suitable for fast walks for a variety of reasons, but you can still cut down your risk of heart disease significantly by walking for about an hour a day.
That is the optimum requirement for weight loss – walk for just 1 hour a day.
However, if you are not able to accommodate 1 hour daily routine, then a minimum of 30 minutes a day at a moderate pace, will still result in a faster metabolic rate good enough to burn those extra calories, burn fat and increase muscle bulk.
Requirements For Walking Weight Loss
In order to enjoy the practice of walking and derive the benefits of weight loss from this form of exercise, you need to have a few things in place.
It is important you enjoy walking as a form of exercise. This is the only way you can sustain the practice in the long term and hence the benefits.
After all, this form of exercise is free – you don’t have to pay any expensive recurrent gym or health club fees and you may just find that inner peace as it could be quite liberating.
So, what do you need to walk effectively?
A good pair of walking shoes or sports shoes is mandatory. Apart from the fact that a nice pair of walking gear will provide you with comfort, they also will help prevent soreness, slips and trips. Think health and safety!
Get yourself a good pair of thick socks. Having this type of socks provides even more comfort and would make your walking pleasurable.
A good complement to your walking gear is a portable CD player or MP3 player or iPod (Apple iPod nano 16 GB Black (5th Generation) NEWEST MODEL ). Listening to your favourite songs during your exercise would make it less of an effort. Of course it goes without saying that you will need headphones to go with whatever media player you choose.
It is also a good idea to wear loose fitting clothes as opposed to tight fitting ones. Forget vanity. You want to walk for results, not for showing off.
Learn more about how many calories do I need to loose weight
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