Walking For Weight Loss: How many calories does it burn?
Posted: Friday, October 28, 2005
by Ray Kelly
www.free-online-health.com
People who walk daily have a lesser incidence of cancer, heart disease, stroke, diabetes and other killer diseases. Not only does walking make you healthier but it also burns calories, creates psychological well being, increases metabolism, strengthens muscles, increases flexibility, improves respiratory function and helps concentration and memory.
This should give you plenty of reasons to try and walk a little each and every day. Besides that, simple physical inactivity is one of the leading causes of ill health.
Walking not only benefits you but it also benefits the Earth. By learning to walk rather than driving a car you are doing your part to help the environment by not releasing toxins into the air, which hurts the long-term stability of the planet. A short four-mile trip you take walking keeps about fifteen pounds of pollutants out of the air we breathe.
Walking also saves you money on gas and other expenses associated with your vehicle. Every time you start your car it costs you about five cents considering current gas prices. Needless to say driving anywhere adds to this enormously. Yet, most people still use their vehicles to make short trips, which could easily be made by walking. If you can even make the simple choice to walk once a week when you would normally drive you will go a long way toward making a difference both in your pocket book as well as in your life.
Walking is also a stress reducer. Stress has been proven to contribute more than any other factor to the reduction of longetivity. Walking can help reduce that stress and increase your longetivity.
One of the primary reasons people decide to walk is to lose pounds.
There are some simple formulas you can use to determine how many calories are being burned according to your weight and how fast you are walking.
3.0 miles/hour (20-minute mile): Burns .027 calories/pound/minute.
3.5 miles/hour (17 minute mile): Burns .033 calories/pound/minute.
4.0 miles/hour (15 minute mile): Burns .042 calories/pound/minute.
4.5 miles/hour (13 minute mile): Burns .047 calories/pound/minute.
Take the number of calories/pound/minute you burn and multiply it by your weight and then by the number of minutes you walk.
For example, if you weigh 150 pounds and walk a 20-minute mile for 60 minutes, you multiply 150 by .027, then multiple the result (4.5) by 60. You burn 270 calories.
It is important that when you do walk that you walk at a moderate pace. Walking will do you no good if it is so leisurely that you exert no effort. A good walk should leave you moderately perspired. This ensures that you are working at an ideal intensity.
Walking is a habit like anything else. If you can create a habit of walking everyday it will contribute to a new and healthy you in the long term.
Ray Kelly is an Exercise Scientist with 15 years experience in the health and fitness industry. Follow one of his walking programs at Free Walking Programs for Weight Loss or http://www.free-online-health.com
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More commentsim 14, and i walk my dog twice a day, so i walk 1hr and 20mins , i also play softball, i started walking bout 3 days ago and i alreadt lost 5 pounds, im thinking bout walking my dog 3 times a day. I have also been eating healthier. Im also gonn start riding my bike more oftenKeep this up and pretty soon you're going to need a new dog!
I have been walking for about two weeks now about 2 1/2 miles per night but I also walk all day at work. I have a pedomiter and I am getting the recommended 10,000 steps a day or more. I also have been working out in the gym about twenty min a day at work on breaks. I have still not lost any weight. I cut out most of the sugar and started eating oatmeal for breakfast. I dont know what I am doing wrong.Sometimes oatmeal is to fulling for some people switch up what u eat for breakfast. Try fruit or yogurt or even bran cereal. Oatmeal makes me gain weight cant explain just does. You may also need to do some aerobics inbetween walking. I hope that was helpful.Are you drinking plenty of water?? Lots of times drinking a gallon of water a day helps with the weight lossI would suggest each meal consist of some carbs, fruit/veggie and protein....oatmeal alone for breakfast will not cut it....a smaller portion of oatmeal with some blue berries and a boiled egg would be better.
i walk for about 1 hour a day,im trying to tone my upper thighsdoes walking help you loose weight from you thighs?if no, what will?You burned about 1,170! Good job!
I walked for four hours and Im 5'3 and 147.3 lbs. How many calories did I lose?
hi...im 5'3"...and my weight is 53 kgs...i do brisk walkin for about 45minutes everyday...and i cover about 4kms..i alternate between joggin n walkin...how much calorie am i losing and should i increase my pace or the time of walking?? i dont really need to lose weight, im just focussing on losing some inches off my tummy, butt and upper thighs...pls reply to this.thank u.
I WALK Every day on the treadmill for 20 minuutes then aerobics then swimming for 30 minutes , i weigh 88 KG and 175 tall , but im not loosing weight whyyyLosing weight is according to my personal trainer 30% physical activity and 70% what you put in your mouth. The more active you are the more weight you should lose but if you are not eating right you are undoing all the good work you have done by working out in the first place. If you eat less than 1,000 calories a day your body will go into starvation mode and store everything you eat as fat instead of it being used as energy to maintain your physique. One last thing that comes to mind is that your body will adapt to the exercise you do so if you do nothing but crunches say as an exercise to tone your abdomen your body will get used to that, you may be able to do 100 crunches without getting tired but you aren't really forcing your body to work in a new way, you need to (can't think of a better word here) stress your body make it use the muscle in new ways so you can continue developing your training and continue losing weight. If you can run 10K non stop on a treadmill all well and good but your body has adapted to that and while cardio is a good way to lose weight you need to mix it up a bit to force your body to react to the exercise by burning your stored energy deposits. Walking will also only burn so much the more active you are the more energy is required to keep bringing oxygen to the muscle, variety is the spice of life and the key to keeping yourself fit and constantly challenging your body.
well, some people are doing some exercises, walking etc... etc.. and yet still don't lose weight at all? might also got to do with the amount they eat in a day... if you burn more or less 500 calories from walking and exercising daily but after wards you eat same amount or more... its useless.. i started cutting down my meals... walk once a week.. do some exercises daily for 30minutes... exactly after a month i've lost 15lbs..
I have just recently hit my 30's. I am 31 now. But when at the end of 2009 came up, I was like almost 30 pounds overweight because of eating fast food. People have been surprised that I did not weigh more than I was because some people have told me "if you keep on eating the way you are now, you will get really big when you are 30." I said "I am 30. I probably weighed in around 195 at that time." So what I did was I got interested in doing situps in the past few months(march, april, ma, and y june of 2010). I would do maybe 250 situps in 20 minutes. And do that maybe twice a week. And I have started to notice a slight decrease in my weight. I normally do not walk. But I walked 12 miles today(6/28/2010) and I walked about 6-8 miles two other days in the past couple months. And I am really started to recognize a more gradual weight loss. I am 6 feet. I still have belly fat, but my lowest reading, right after I did the 12 mile walk today., was 182.2 pounds (naked). Like I said, I still have belly fat. So maybe I will try to take in more broccoli and see what happens.
150*.027 is 4.05, not 4.5
im 24 years old and on december 13th 2010 i found out that i had to have my gall bladder taken out. the dr weighed me on that day and i weighed 310 lbs. sad i know.... anyway on december 2oth 2010 i had my surgery witch went okay....i went to my regular dr on december 28th and i hade lost weight. at the point i had already lost 13 lbs.. i was super excited....so i started walking on the tread mill 30 mins a day to keep up the weight lost. i had to go back to my surgen to have my stitches taken out and that was on january 3rd 2010. and i found out that day i went from 310 lbs to 290 lbs i had lost 21lbs in lil over 2 weeks...yay.....so i have been keeping up my walking and extrasize...thank god for what i have lost already...
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