One of the best ways to burn fat is to take walks. So you may be wondering how much walking you’ll need to lose the weight you’re looking to lose.
Answering the question comes with a lot of caveats. How old you are, how much you weigh, and how fast you walk are all factors. But we’ll skip the caveats and get straight to a good estimate.
How much I should walk to slim down?
For our purposes, it’s good enough to say that you burn about 100 calories for every mile walked.
And, it’s safe to say that it takes about 3,500 calories to burn a pound of fat.
So now we can do our calculation: 3500/100 = 35 miles.
The rough answer to our question is that it takes about 35 miles of walking to burn a pound of fat.
If you break that down over a week (7 days) then you’re looking at about 5 miles of walking per day to burn 1 pound of fat per week.
Some Additional Considerations
The calculation above is a rough estimate and that’s enough to understand approximately how much walking you’ll need to do to lose the weight you want to lose. However, some variables do matter and you should keep in mind:
- Age
- Weight
- Speed of walking
- Current resting heart rate
1. Age
The older you are over 33, the slower your metabolism and the less responsive your hormones are. The hormonal response is a small part of losing weight.
2. Weight
The more you weigh, the more work it takes to move your body. A 200lbs person will use more energy to walk 1 mile than a 100lbs person. However, the amount of energy used will not be double because the 200lbs person will have muscles adapted to 200lbs.
3. Speed of Walking
Some research suggests that the ideal pace for burning fat is a fast-paced walk where you’re still able to have a conversation but you feel your heart and breath rate elevate a bit. Some people refer to this as Zone 2. At the end of the day, the speed of walking matters but not that much. The important thing is that you get out and walk.
4. Current Resting Heart Rate
A lower resting heart rate means that your body is well-conditioned. It usually means you have a good current fitness level. Because of this, your body will have to work less hard and exert less energy. The lower your resting heart rate, the less work your body is putting in when you walk. This results in burning fewer calories… but not by much.
Conclusion
While these four variables come into play and may result in your burning more or less than 100 calories per mile walked, you can still get a good sense of how much walking it will take you to lose a pound of fat. Or 10 pounds of fat. Or even 100 lbs of fat. Whatever the amount of fat you want to burn, just get walking!
