Can I Lose Weight by Walking 30 Minutes Everyday?

Walking is an effective way to lose weight for numerous reasons. Once you know the correct way to do it, it will allow you to achieve your goal as soon as possible.

Besides being easy and exciting for most people, it’s one of the safest exercises.

So, can you lose weight by walking? YES, you can! That’s the short answer.

A 30-minute walk is enough to trim down weight when you incorporate eating a healthy diet. Walking consistently and changes in diet will lead to weight loss.

Most folks can stick to walking for a long period, and this is a fundamental element of weight loss and maintenance. You’ll only need to set your goals, understand the basics, and keep going.

Here’s what you need to know…

Can You Lose Weight By Walking 30 Minutes Daily?

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YES! Absolutely! As previously stated, walking for 30 minutes daily is an excellent way to help you lose some extra pounds and keep them off.

That said, it is also important to remember that walking is not the best choice for weight loss. And this is primarily because it doesn’t burn a large number of calories in comparison to other physical activities. If you’re trying to lose weight by this method alone, it will take a relatively long period, and you’ll need to closely monitor your calorie intake.

So, what happens when you take a 30-minute walk?

Calories Burned During a 30 Minute Walk

In general, walking offers several health benefits. If you make walking your daily habit, you’ll reap its benefits in so many ways. It can help keep off weight gain, improves circulation, brings awareness to eating habits, releases feel-good endorphins, makes you feel interested in being healthy, regulates blood sugar, and the list goes on.

The number of calories you can burn during a minute, 30 minutes, or an hour entirely depends on various factors such as body weight, age, speed, gender, muscle mass, physical fitness, time duration spent on walking, and intervals during the walk.

You can burn more calories in a given duration by including a few changes. One method of increasing the number of calories you burn is by going faster.

You can increase your walking speed in numerous ways, e.g., the use of arm motion, changes in walking pace, and improvements in posture. By doing this, you’ll cover more distance in a relatively shorter period which results in more calories burnt.

And as aforementioned, the number of calories burned relies on walking pace and weight. You might still be wondering whether walking for 30 minutes helps reduce weight.

Weight Loss By Walking 30 Minutes: A Guide

We can all agree that walking is quite a simple activity that most folks, particularly those trying to burn extra calories, seem to enjoy it. Generally speaking, the amount of calories you can burn by walking depends heavily on your walking speed and mass.

Normally, the pace of walking is 3 mph. That means if you’re an overweight/ obese individual with a high-speed walk, you’re likely to burn more calories.

Numerous other factors will also play a role in the number of calories you burn when walking for 30 minutes. Below is a list of several things to consider.

Walking outdoors vs. walking indoors
The climbs in the landscape
What the actual temperature is where you walk
Your gender
How old you are

Walking for 30 minutes every day can help you with consuming calories and, in turn, you might become thinner over time.

A study reported that a brisk walk every day for 6 months assisted women of moderate weight to trim off 17 lbs. or 10% of their previous weight.

Furthermore, these participants slowly expanded their walking span within half a year until they could do it for an hour per day. But effective weight reduction was not achieved until they walked for 30 minutes daily. This outcome proves that the time spent walking is connected to weight reduction.

Based on diet and exercise, you could lose 1-4 lbs. monthly. If you don’t change your diet and simply walk consistently at a slow pace for 30 minutes a day, you can likely lose around 1 pound a month. And if you watch your diet and walk more vigorously, you can lose up to 4 pounds a month.

So, how does diet play a role?

30 Minutes Walking & Proper Diet

Walking alone may help you become more fit, but it’s much more compelling when combined with a controlled calorie diet plan. According to a certain 12-week study, overweight individuals cut down their calorie consumption by 500–800 per day.

One group of participants walked for around 3 hours per week at 3.7 mph. However, the other group did not walk at all.

Although the weight loss was observed in both groups, they noticed that the impact was much larger in the walking group since they lost around 4 lbs. more than the one which didn’t walk. The surprising thing is that weight reduction might similarly be affected by if you walk frequently or not.

A different 24-week study was done that examined how overweight women cut down their calorie intake by 500–600 daily. They walked actively for around 50 minutes daily or performed two sessions of 25-minute walking daily.

Those who carried out the two shorter exercises every day reduced 3.7 lbs. extra than individuals who did 50 minutes of nonstop walking.

Nonetheless, other experiments don’t show any huge difference in weight reduction when it comes to persistent and irregular walking.

Therefore, you need to pick the most suitable regimen for you. Different studies prove that walking assists with weight reduction, especially when combined with a drop in calories.

How Long Does it Take to See Results?

Well, this question can’t be answered in a number or even a single sentence. Weight loss is a journey! The actual time it takes for weight loss depends on different factors e.g., portion control, a balanced diet, exercises such as walking, running, cycling, swimming, and strength training.

The ideal way to reduce and maintain weight is through proper diet control and regular exercise, such as walks. Always opting for a balanced diet with correct portions brings a huge impact of 70-80% of a person’s weight loss.

That said, improving your activity level by incorporating any form of workout or including a morning walk into your routine may assist you to burn more calories and reduce weight in less time. Regular exercise and a proper diet are the perfect pair for ensuring that all of your body’s machinery is working correctly. They’ll also help you to stay healthy.

Come up with a plan for your workout regimen. Include a medium-paced 30 minutes walk in the morning, followed by 15 minutes of running, swimming, cycling, or a suitable yoga and stretching exercise in this regimen.

Generally, losing 3500 calories assists you to reduce weight by a single pound. You can target reducing 4 lbs monthly if you make changes to exercise and diet.

Most people will realize that they can attain their ideal fitness goals as soon as possible by making some changes to their diet and doing consistent exercise. So, if you start practicing such habits, you might be able to lose almost a pound every week.

It’s also worth mentioning that the weight loss journey always demands patience, commitment, discipline, and perseverance. It’s a structured method of improving your habits and lifestyle for the long term. You might begin to notice weight loss and how your overall body is becoming fit. Ultimately, you may feel much healthier and happier!

As a rough estimate, losing 1 pound per week means that you’ll need 30 weeks to lose 30 pounds. At this pace, weight loss is safe and keeps off the weight for the long term since you’ve established a pattern.

If you’re looking to achieve this, try burning 300-500 calories daily by walking. If you can’t accomplish this by walking alone, try reducing your calorie consumption. Here’s what to expect for different levels:

Beginner: Daily walking for 30 minutes at 2.5 miles per hour can burn 100 calories.
Intermediate: Daily walking for 30 minutes at 3.5 miles per hour can burn about 150 calories.
Advanced: Daily walking for 30 minutes at 4.5 miles per hour can burn 175 calories.

A single pound of fat is roughly 3,500 calories. That means it would take about two weeks of daily walking for 30 minutes to burn enough calories to keep off weight. Although a walker at 4.5 mph can achieve this number of calories; it may take a bit longer for the other two levels. However, paying more attention to your diet and portion control may speed up the process.

You could also incorporate strength training into your routine to further minimize the time. In turn, this might boost the process and minimize the total time taken to lose weight. With strengthening workouts, you can increase fat loss and ultimately reduce belly fat.

Other Benefits of Walking 30 Minutes a Day

Everybody should consider walking for 1 hour. Besides playing a significant role in weight reduction, it offers other medical advantages. Once you begin your day with a walk, it’ll keep you energetic for the entire day.

Outdoor walking also gives you more energy. Research shows that people who have a 20 minutes outdoor walk tend to be more energetic than folks who take a 20-minute indoor walk.

When it comes to muscular strength, walking is perfect practice. Begin walking at a mild speed and then change your routine by running on a treadmill, using stairs, or climbing hills.

Walking is most likely the best solution for joint soreness and joint swelling. Walking works on the muscles that secure your joints, which empowers both your muscles and joints. Since walking pumps blood to every part of your body, it helps to supply nutrients to your muscles and joints. It also helps to eliminate toxins.

Scientifically, it’s proved that walking assists to reduce soreness and aches caused by aging joints or joint inflammation. While it still hurts to walk, you’ll feel better, both emotionally and physically, and your joints will feel much better. With less or no pain, you’ll also have a better ability to have flexibility and move.

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Outdoor walks assist you to build up immunity in comparison to indoor. The strong immune system and active body you’re building through a walk should help you stay protected from various illnesses like flu or cold.
Walking also helps you to develop incredible mental precision and improves your capability to remain focused. Another study reported that individuals who are 50+ years old and follow their daily morning walk routine have enhanced brains’ cerebral activity compared to people who stay inactive.

A morning walk usually boosts your creativity. And if you walk outdoors during the early morning, it improves the brain’s problem-solving capacity. Apart from feeling fresh the entire day, you’ll make better decisions.
Starting your day with a walk also helps you enjoy a good sleep at night – this statement is highlighted in a 2017 study.

The study was carried out on people between 55 and 65 years of age who had difficulty sleeping or mild insomnia.

Final Thoughts

Although walking is a simple and effective method of losing weight, you need to be consistent to see results. That means working for it daily. If you’re looking to shed some extra kilos, you’ll have to take steps every day and have a clean and healthy diet.

While a proper and balanced diet will assist you to reduce belly fat, walking will help you to keep it off. It’s safe to say that a lot of good comes from daily walking for 30 minutes. Walking is so much more than just burning calories.

Walking will make you feel like the best version of yourself, and this is an essential ingredient to a healthy mind and body. When you achieve your goal, you’ll have a healthier heart and look better too!

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