Can walking burn belly fat?
Strange as it may seem, walking is not everyone’s cup of tea. Yet if you have the time to spare, just walking one hour a day will provide many benefits and help to lose weight.
Does Walking Help Lose Belly Fat
You should consider this as an easy option to help to either reduce your weight or to keep your weight within your recommended guidelines.
Will Walking 2 Miles a Day Help Lose Belly Fat?
Walking is a great way for easy weight loss or for losing weight. They say you should take around 10,000 steps a day if you want to get the weight off.
Depending on the length of your stride, this will be more than waling 2 miles a day, but not much more.
The bigger question here though is a simple one. How much food do you consume in a day, and is it the good or bad type of food.
Walking 2 miles a day may well help towards loosing belly fat, but that will depend on what else you do in your day, and how much fatty food you also consume a day.
This will obviously depend on the amount of food that you eat each day, and also what you eat. 10,000 steps are doable in around 1 to 2 hours of walking.
Use a watch or device to measure the amount of calories an hour burned. Calories a minute will be recorded and you can see what you are performing every day.
This is a substantial form of continuous training on the body. A simple refined exercise that can be done by almost anybody.
With a watch like the very popular Fitbit Versa you can track all of your activities, heartrate, calories and much more during the day to see how you are doing.
One of the biggest questions that I see people asking is: How many miles is 10000 steps a day?
According to research, 10000 steps a day is roughly 5 miles of walking, or 8 kilometres of walking in a metric scale.
So if you want to walk 10000 steps a day you are going to have to be walking roughly 90 minutes each day.
How far is 20000 steps. With the calculation above you can quite clearly see that 20000 steps is roughly 10 miles.
20000 steps is going to take you double the time to walk, so you will be looking to walk 10000 steps in 90 minutes, and 20000 steps in 180 minutes ir 3 hours.
You soon discover that it does not take long to do 1000 steps, so your 10k steps mark quickly appears.
You can always do shorter periods if you do not have the time for a long walk every day. Any physical activity is pleasurable for your overall health.
Get yourself a decent ACTIVITY TRACKER to see exactly how many steps you are doing.
With many of these trackers, you do not need to do anything with them, they automatically do it for you.
My Samsung watch automatically records my walks after I have been walking for just over 10 minutes. Yes, it includes those 10 minutes. ( Now a Garmin Fenix 5).
I bought mine 2nd hand. It is the perfect watch for multisports. I owned a Fenix 3 before the Samsung watch and find the battery life of 2 weeks and above suits my style rather than charging the watch every 3 or 4 days.
Get yourself a walking coach. This could simply be a friend who has been doing it for years. Or join your local walking club.
Walking 10000 steps is a really simple form of getting more fresh air into your lungs, and reaping the benefits of a simple exercise, and helps to manage your weight.
Walk on a flat fire road, but at pace, or moderate intensity, this way you will burn more calories. Make walking plans. Vary your routine. Do not do the same walk every day.
Walking workouts are great for your mental health as much as your physical well being. They help you to your weight loss goals.
Fast walking is a slightly higher pace than you would normally walk. This is not a stupid type of walk, just a little quicker than normal.
Use a Pedometer for an accurate and incentive to do the steps daily. If you have a dog, take him or her on the walks with you. You will be amazed how time flies when you are out walking your dog.
A 30-minute walk will burn around 150 calories. These calories will not be abdominal fat straight off the bat.
So if you are trying to reduce belly fat or thin out the waste line, you will need to do more than an hour a day walking.
When you are out walking, swing your arms. This will help towards that full-body workout.
A healthy diet plays a part in a healthy weight. By looking after what you eat, you will reduce the chances of breast cancer, lung cancer, cardiovascular disease, and keep your cardio system functioning as it should.
Any form of alcohol and smoking will increase the risks of disease. These types of disease are the worst as you will not feel any effects for years, and then it may almost be too late to reverse the problems caused in your earlier years.
Cardio exercise is great for the cardiovascular system, and will help to keep the arteries functioning as they should.
Get Yourself a Good Fitness Watch
If you decide to start a walking program, try to find something that will give you encouragement to go walking regularly.
For me, it is a heart rate monitor. My watch is a Garmin Fenix 5, but you do not need something as technical as this.
Update. I have now changed to a Samsung Galaxy Watch. Update. I have now gone back to a Fenix 5 Sapphire.
By having something on your wrist that shows how you are doing it gives you the inspiration to do more and shows you how you are doing, day by day and week by week.
You can also compare with friends if they have the same make or are in the same group, or you can simply join many of the groups on facebook, garmin, strava etc and become part of the weekly movement on each platform.
For a rough guide, you will lose one pound of weight for every 3,500 calories you burn beyond what you consume in a day.
If you become a power walker and use a power walk pace, you will burn more calories. The longer you walk, the more calories burned off.
It does not take much to build up to power walking. It all goes towards your caloric expenditure and calorie deficit.
It is a fact that the more you weigh, the more you will burn when walking for an hour.
So a person who weighs 125 pounds burns 240 calories walking for an hour at 3.5 mph, but a person who weighs 185 pounds person will burn around 356 calories in an hour.
Make sure you have a drink with you if you are going out for an hour or more. Just a simple drink of water in a small bottle will suffice.
Nothing too sweet or any type of sugar drink. Just water. Sugar drinks defeat the object and will stop the weight loss. Sugar is an enemy of weight loss.
Consider getting yourself a small set of hand weights and taking these with you, or a set of ski type sticks, so that you are using the full body motion.
These are great for strength training. Try them at a brisk walking pace.
Walking An Hour a Day Benefits
This is a cheap and easy way to look after yourself. It is also one of those sports where you do not have to pay much to do it, and it is done anytime and anywhere that you are.
If you have a full-time desk job, something as simple as this could be performed in your lunch hour.
You do not need a gym membership to go walking. Do this a few times a week at work, rather than having to use precious time in the evenings when you get home.
It helps to keep a good fitness level even whilst you are working behind a desk each day.
Plus, you will hardly suffer any risk of injury from walking, unlike running or jogging, where it is really easy to pull a muscle and cannot do that sport for weeks at a time.
With walking, it is rare that you will cause any injuries. So there really is no excuse that you could not get to the gym to burn the calories.
We are very lucky where we live. Across the road from us is the entrance to a forest.
We can take a walk through the forest for well over an hour, getting the best of both worlds at no extra cost.
An hour’s walk is as good as 30 minutes’ running. The benefits of walking are far more impressive than running.
- Walking is simple
- Walking burns calories
- You can walk anywhere
- Walking costs nothing
- Walking benefits are very high
- Helps against heart disease
- Helps with weight loss
- Good for the Cardiovascular system
- Good to keep Blood Sugar low
Women’s Walking Shoe
A women is a little different than a man when it comes to their feet. A womens walking shoe is probably something that they would look for and use purely when they go out walking.
The womens walking shoe below is perfect for a woman who is looking for the ideal walking shoe. Well liked by those who have tried it out and easy to put on and take off when required.
A man on the other hand will normally use any old shoe rather than specifically a mans walking shoe.
Running Benefits
- running burns more calories
- running is for the younger generation
- running hurts
- running causes more injuries
- running costs money
Mens Walking Shoe
Men are not normally fussy when it comes to walking shoes as they will wear what ever they have available.
However the shoe below is designed purely as a walking shoe and is perfect for those who feel they would benefit from having a shoe soley used for when they go walking.
A slip on walking shoe. Nice and simple to just jump in and off you go.
And a good quality normal walking shoe for men.
Men’s Performance Go Walk Sneaker
Shaft measures approximately low-top from arch
Get the maximum comfort and cushioning for athletic walking with the Skechers GOwalk Max.
Mesh fabric upper with cushioned, supportive sole design.
Designed with Skechers Performance technology and materials specifically for athletic walking.
Goga Max Technology insole with high-rebound cushioning.
Super lightweight mesh fabric upper for ideal fit.
Solid weave mesh fabric toe and heel panels for stability.
Synthetic overlay at laces for added durability.
Extra padded heel for walking comfort.
Lace up design with padded collar and tongue.
Walking vs Running
I took up walking over 25 years ago (about 35 years young) and have never looked back.
I tried training for a marathon about 5 years ago and gave up as the legs just had too many difficulties to handle.
I have never had an injury from walking and can count on one hand the number of injuries I have had in the last 30 years.
Running is great when you are young, and your legs are used to it. You are slim and your body can cope with the constant pounding it takes from driving the legs into the ground repeatedly.
With walking, you do not get this problem. As you get older, you put weight on. I see hundreds of people every year out running, trying to lose weight. The age ranges from 18 years to 65 years.
If you are just overweight, and you are serious about losing the weight, you might make it.
But unfortunately, most of the people I see are middle-aged men who go out running once or twice a week for 3 or 4 miles, thinking that this will be enough to get the weight off.
They stand no chance. In fact, they would be better off walking daily than running twice a week.
For most of these people, that effort is about as much as they can muster, and unfortunately, it is nowhere near enough.
An average working male consumes between 2200 and 2800 calories a day, maybe higher depending on how you start your day.
If you start the day with a coffee before you get the train, you are looking at around 200 calories a cup with sugar.
If you start with a Starbucks latte or any coffee shop latte or cappuccino, you are looking at around 320 calories. This does not include what you had for breakfast.
Add a croissant to it and we are now at 500 calories. The day is long and during the working day, most people snack.
Another coffee or two, a couple of teas, crisps, chocolate bars, biscuits and more, and this is before we have had lunch.
If you are a McDonalds or Kentucky fan, you have serious problems. Not just because of the quality of food that you eat, the fact is that most of us who use these places use the regular.
Burn-XT Thermogenic Fat Burner
Not only is the food unhealthy most of the time, but it is also full of salt and those dreaded empty calories.
Empty calories are food that contains very little nutrition. All it actually does is fill you up. This type of food is visceral food. It will stick to your organs. This is the most UNHEALTHY type of fat.
What the body does not burn it then stores as FAT. So each meal you consume from any of the regular quick fill places will leave you with a certain excess amount of wasted food, and a high degree of unburned calories, which then turn to fat.
Abdominal Stimulator
This all builds up to help you towards the big H. Too many calories from empty food will give you a few things to think about.
- Heart Attack
- Stroke
- High Blood Pressure
To help you burn those excess calories every day without going to the gym, add walking to your routine. If you would rather do it before work, then try to do it in the morning.
Walk to the next several bus stops before getting on the bus. Walk to work if it is within walking distance.
Get off the bus a couple of stops early and walk into work, or walk home. Try to squeeze in 10,000 steps a day, and to add to this, try to change your diet so that it fits in with your routine. You really need to combine both to make it work.
Go to your local sports store and buy yourself a decent pedometer. You can attach it to your shorts, trousers, jeans or whatever and count the steps that you do. It really is a great incentive to get you out walking.
Activity Tracker with PRIVACY in Mind
Start a diary and make notes of how many steps you are taking each day. This will encourage you to keep a weekly and monthly record of what you do.
Once you achieve this, consider looking at what you eat. Look at the labels on the containers and try to take in 5 a day as recommended.
You will be surprised at what you can actually eat in a day AND still lose weight.
Can You Lose Weight Walking Questions
Is Walking 1 Hour a Day Enough to Lose Weight?
That will all depend on how much food you consume each day, and how often you exercise each day.
Ideally, aim to lose 1 pound of fat each week according to the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute. This translates to about 8 pounds in two months.
Walking at a pace of 3.5 miles per hour for 30 minutes, a 155-pound person can burn about 149 calories, or 298 calories in one hour.
Adults with weight-loss goals should dedicate at least 300 minutes to medium-intensity aerobic exercise every week.
Don’t feel overwhelmed by this number; an hour-long walk five days per week is enough to bring you to 300 total minutes of walking by the end of the week.
Can I Lose Weight Just by Walking Every Day?
The simple answer lies in how much food you consume each day, and how much exercise you also do.
If you eat a lot of food each day and do very little exercise, you will gain weight rather than lose it.
If you add 30 minutes of brisk walking to your daily routine, you could burn about 150 more calories a day.
Of course, the more you walk and the quicker your pace, the more calories you’ll burn.
However, balance is important. … So keep walking, but make sure you also eat a healthy, balanced diet.
How Many Hours a Week Should You Walk to Lose Weight?
Try to walk as often as you can and am minimum of at least ONE HOUR each day.
Aim for a brisk walk of 30 to 90 minutes most days of the week for easy weight loss.
You can walk more on some days and less on others, but the total time for the week should be at least 150 minutes (2.5 hours).
Can You Lose Belly Fat by Walking?
Try to have your last meal around 6 pm, followed by only light drinks after this.
Then, when you get up in the morning, try not to eat for as long as you can. This way, the body will tuck into your fat reserves to get its energy.
While any exercise can burn calories, brisk walking for 45 minutes will help towards your daily calorie count and burn a small amount of fat.
