How Walking Can Help You Lose Weight and Belly Fat

1. Walking burns calories

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

You need to burn more calories than you consume to lose weight. However, daily calorie needs vary from person to person and are affected by things like your:

• age
• height
• weight
• sex
• genes
• activity level

Furthermore, being physically active burns more calories, or uses more energy, than being sedentary.

A sedentary lifestyle can not only contribute to weight gain, but can also increase your risk for health problems, namely:

• cardiovascular disease
• heart failure
• mortality

Trying to get more exercise by walking more often can help you burn more calories and reduce these risks.

A 2021 study measured the number of calories regular walkers or runners burned after walking 1 mile (1.6 km). Results showed that walkers and runners burned, on average, 107 calories. This number will vary, however, depending on your weight, sex, and ethnicity.

Furthermore, the study found that running burned more calories than walking, although the difference was small. This means that both forms of exercise, walking and running, contribute significantly to the number of calories burned and, therefore, weight management.

To increase the intensity of your walk and burn even more calories, try walking on routes with hills or slight inclines.

Summary

Walking burns calories, which may help you lose weight and keep it off. In fact, walking just one mile can burn about 100 calories.

2. Walking helps preserve lean muscle

You often lose some muscle in addition to body fat when you cut calories and lose weight.

This can be counterproductive, as muscle is more metabolically active than fat. This means that having more muscle helps you burn more calories each day.

Exercise, including walking, can help counter this effect by preserving lean muscle when you lose weight. Preserving lean muscle helps reduce the drop in metabolic rate that often occurs with weight loss, making your results easier to maintain.

What’s more, regular exercise can reduce age-related muscle loss, helping you retain more of your muscle strength and function in later years.

Summary

Walking can help prevent some of the muscle loss that may occur from aging or when cutting calories to lose weight. This helps minimize the drop in metabolic rate that occurs when you lose weight, making the pounds easier to keep off.

3. Walking reduces belly fat

Storing a lot of fat around your midsection (abdominal fat) has been linked to an increased risk of diseases like diabetes and heart disease.

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

One of the most effective ways to reduce belly fat is to regularly take part in aerobic exercise, such as walking.

In a 2021 systematic review, researchers found that at least moderate aerobic activity was beneficial for reducing visceral adipose tissue. Additionally, exercising 3 times per week for 12–16 weeks and performing 30–60 minutes of aerobic activity reduced visceral adipose tissue.

Another systematic review found that people on a calorie-controlled diet who participated in exercise showed a dose-dependent reduction in visceral fat compared with the controls.

Summary

Regularly partaking in moderate-intensity aerobic exercise like walking is associated with lower levels of belly fat.

4. Walking improves mood

Exercise is known to boost your mood. Physical activity has been associated with:

• improved mood
• decreased feelings of stress, depression, and anxiety
• increased energy levels

It does this by making your brain more sensitive to the hormones serotonin and norepinephrine. These hormones relieve feelings of depression and stimulate the release of endorphins, which make you feel happy.

This is a great benefit in itself. However, experiencing an improvement in mood when you walk regularly might also make the habit easier to keep up with than if you walk less frequently.

What’s more, some studies have found that finding enjoyment in a physical activity can increase the likelihood that you will continue to participate in it.

People tend to exercise less if they do not find the exercises they’re doing enjoyable.

Walking is an excellent choice because it’s a moderate-intensity exercise. This is likely to motivate you to walk more rather than give up.

Summary

Regularly taking part in exercise that you enjoy, such as walking, can improve your mood and make you more motivated to keep it up, which in turn supports weight loss.

5. Walking can help keep weight off

Many people who try weight loss programs end up gaining allor some of their weight back. Regular exercise plays an important role in helping you maintain weight loss.

However, you must continuously engage in physical activity if your goal is to keep off weight that you’ve already lost.

In fact, studies have found that people who exercise the most are usually more successful at losing a greater amount of weight, whereas people who exercise the least are more likely to regain weight.

According to the National Weight Control Registry, 94% of people who have successfully maintained a loss of at least 30 pounds for 1 year or more report increasing physical activity, mainly by walking.

Incorporating more walking into your day can help you increase the amount of exercise you do and contribute to your daily activity goals.

Summary

Staying active and moving more by walking throughout your day can help maintain weight loss and keep the weight off in the long run.

How to incorporate walking into your lifestyle

According to the Centers for Disease Control, it’s recommended to get at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise per week to maintain a stable weight.

In walking terms, that means walking for around 2.5 hours per week (at least 10 minutes at a time) at a brisk pace. Or, walking just 22 minutes per day also satisfies this recommendation.

Doing more exercise than this has additional benefits for your health (and your weight) and reduces your risk for disease even further.

There are many ways to increase the amount of walking you do and achieve this target:

• Use a fitness tracker to motivate yourself to move more, see your progress, and set step goals.
• Make a habit of taking a brisk walk on your lunch break and/or after dinner.
• Ask a friend to join you for an evening walk.
• Go for a walk with family and kids.
• Walk your dog every day or join a friend on their dog walks.
• Take a walking meeting with a colleague or take work calls while walking, instead of at your desk.
• Do errands, like going to the grocery store, and any shopping on foot and in person instead of curbside pick-up or online shopping.
• Walk to work. If it’s too far, park your car further away or get off your bus a few stops early and walk the rest of the way.
• Try picking new and challenging routes to keep your walks interesting.
• Join a walking group.

Every little bit helps, so start small and try to gradually increase the amount you walk daily.

Summary

Incorporating more walking into your day can help you burn more calories and lose weight.

The takeaway

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

Simply walking more often can help you lose weight and belly fat. It also provides other excellent health benefits, including a decreased risk of disease and improved mood.

Walking 1 mile can burn approximately 100 calories. You can also add walks to your daily routine to improve your health.

Combining your increase in physical activity with a nutrient-rich, balanced diet offers the best opportunity to help you achieve your goal if want to better manage your weight.