How Walking Can Help You Lose Weight and Belly Fat

  



  
  If you want to stay fit and healthy, then exercising regularly is important.

  This is because being physically active reduces the risk of developing health conditions such as heart disease, diabetes and cancer (1Trusted Source, 2Trusted Source).

  In addition to helping you live longer and healthier lives, exercise can also be beneficial for weight loss and maintenance (3Trusted Source, 4Trusted Source).

  Fortunately, walking is a great form of physical activity, which is free, low-risk, and accessible to most people (5Trusted Source).

  In fact, walking is not good for you - it is one of the easiest forms of exercise to incorporate into your day-to-day life.

  This article explains that walking more often can help you reduce weight and abdominal fat.

  Walking burn calories

    Your body requires energy (in the form of calories) for all complex chemical reactions that allow you to move, breathe, think and act normally.

  However, daily calorie requirements vary from person to person and are influenced by things like your weight, gender, genes, and activity level.

  It is well known that you must burn more calories to lose weight (6Trusted Source).

  In addition, people who are more physically active tend to burn more calories (5Trusted Source, 7Trusted Source).

  However, modern living and work environments can mean that you spend the bulk of your day sitting, especially if you have an office job.

  Unfortunately, a sedentary lifestyle can not only contribute to weight gain, it can also increase your risk of health problems (8Trusted Source).

  Trying to get more exercise by walking more often can help you burn more calories and reduce these risks (9Trusted Source).

  In fact, walking a mile (1.6 km) burns around 100 calories depending on your sex and weight (10Trusted Source).

  One study measured the number of calories burned by non-athletes, which ran at a top speed of 3.2 miles (5 km) per hour or at a speed of about 6 mph.  It was found that people who walked at high speeds burned an average of 90 calories per mile (7Trusted Source).

  Furthermore, although walking burns significantly more calories, it burns about 23 more calories per mile on average, meaning that both forms of exercise contributed significantly to the number of calories burned.

  To increase the intensity of your walking and burn even more calories, try walking along hills or routes with slight tilt (11Trusted Source).

  Summary: Walking burns calories, which can help you lose weight and keep it off.  In fact, walking just one mile burns around 100 calories.

  It helps preserve the lean muscle

  When people cut calories and lose weight, they often lose some muscles in addition to body fat.

  This can be reversed, as muscle metabolism is more active than fat.  This means that it helps you burn more calories each day.

  Exercise, including walking, can help combat this effect by preserving lean muscle while losing weight.

  This can help reduce the decline in metabolic rate that often accompanies weight loss, making your results easier to maintain (12Trusted Source, 13Trusted Source, 14Trusted Source, 15Trusted Source).

  What's more, it can reduce age-related muscle loss by helping you maintain your muscle strength and function (16Trusted Source).

  Summary: Walking can help in preventing muscle loss when losing weight.  This helps reduce the decline in metabolic rate that occurs when you lose weight, making it easier to keep the pounds off.

  Walking burn belly fat

  Accumulating too much fat around your midsection has been linked to an increased risk of diseases such as type 2 diabetes and heart disease (17Trusted Source).

  In fact, men with a waist circumference of more than 40 inches (102 cm) and men with a waist circumference of more than 35 inches (88 cm) have abdominal obesity, which is considered a health risk.

  One of the most effective ways to reduce abdominal fat is by regularly participating in aerobic exercise, such as walking (18Trusted Source, 19Trusted Source).

  In a small study, obese women lasting 50–70 minutes three times per week for 12 weeks reduced their waist circumference by 1.1 inches (2.8 cm) and 1.5% of their body fat (20Trusted Source).  have lost.

  Another study found that people on a calorie-controlled diet running five times an hour for 12 weeks lost an extra 1.5 inches (3.7 centimeters) above their waist and 1.3% more body fat than the diet alone  Used to follow (21Trusted Source).

  Other studies have seen similar results (22Trusted Source) on the effects of brisk walking for 30–60 minutes per day.

  Summary: Regularly participating in moderate-intensity aerobic exercise such as walking has been shown to help people lose belly fat.

  It improves your mood

  Exercise is known to enhance your mood.

  In fact, physical activity has been shown to improve your mood and reduce feelings of stress, depression, and anxiety (23Trusted Source, 24Trusted Source).

  It does this by making your brain more sensitive to the hormones serotonin and norepinephrine.  These hormones allay feelings of depression and stimulate the release of endorphins, making you feel happier (25Trusted Source).

  This in itself is a huge benefit.  However, experiencing mood improvements when you walk regularly can also make the habit easier.

  What's more, some studies have found that if you enjoy a physical activity, it can increase the likelihood that you will continue to do it (26Trusted Source, 27Trusted Source, 28Trusted Source).

  If they do not enjoy it, people tend to exercise less, which may be due to being physically very demanding (27Trusted Source).

  This is an excellent option, as it is a moderate intensity exercise.  This is likely to motivate you to walk more than give up.

  Summary: Regularly participating in exercise that you enjoy, such as walking, can improve your mood and motivate you to maintain it more.

  
  
  Walking can help you lose weight

  Many people who lose their weight regain it (29Trusted Source).

  However, regular exercise plays an important role in helping to lose weight (30Trusted Source).

  Regular exercise such as walking not only helps to increase the amount of energy you burn daily, but it also helps you build more lean muscle so that you can burn more calories even at rest.

  In addition, participating in regular, moderate-intensity exercise, such as walking, can improve your mood, making you more likely to remain active for longer periods of time.

  Recent reviews have estimated that to maintain a steady weight, you should be running at least 150 minutes per week (31Trusted Source).

  However, if you have lost too much weight, you may need to exercise more than 200 minutes per week to prevent yourself from regaining you (32Trusted Source, 33Trusted Source).

  In fact, the study found that people who exercise the most are usually the most successful at losing weight, while those who exercise the least are more likely to gain weight again (34Trusted Source  )

  Including more walks in your day can help you increase the amount of exercise you do towards your daily activity goals.

  Summary: Staying active throughout your day and walking more can help maintain weight loss.

  How to get more involved in your lifestyle

  Being more physically active has a host of benefits, including improved fitness and mood, a lower risk of disease, and an increased likelihood of living a longer, healthier life.

  Because of this, it is recommended that people participate in at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise per week.

  In terms of walking, this means walking at a brisk pace for about 2.5 hours per week (at least 10 minutes at a time).  Exercising more than this brings additional health benefits and reduces your risk of disease even further.

  There are many ways to increase the amount of walking you do and achieve this goal.

  Following are some ideas:

  Use a fitness tracker and log your steps to motivate yourself to move more (35Trusted sources).

  Get used to walking brisk on your lunch break or after dinner.

  Ask to meet a friend for an evening walk.

  Walk your dog every day or visit a friend on their dog walk.

  Instead of meeting at your desk, have a walk-in a meeting with a colleague.

  Prefer to take children to school or go to the foot shop.

  walk to work.  If it's too far, park your car ahead or stop your bus a few minutes and walk the rest of the way.

  Try to choose new and challenging routes to keep your walk interesting.

  Join a walking group.

  Every little bit helps, so start small and try to gradually increase the volume you run.

  Summary: Including more walking in your day can help you burn more calories and lose weight.

  Bottom-line

  Walking is a moderate intensity exercise that can be easily incorporated into your daily life.

  Just walking more often can help you lose weight and abdominal fat, as well as provide other excellent health benefits including reduced risk of disease and improved mood.

  In fact, walking just one mile burns around 100 calories.

  If you want to lose weight, you will get the best results by increasing physical activity with healthy changes in your diet.