Walking in place is one of the most accessible and popular physical exercises, which has virtually no contraindications. Its main advantage is the zero risk of injury and the simplest execution technique. Any beginner can master the exercise, without the help of a trainer or even Google. You can walk everywhere: at home, on the street, and in the office, right during a break. Thus, any person will be able to lead an active lifestyle, even those who have absolutely no time for the gym or morning exercises.
How many calories are burned
Let's answer the main question that interests all women who are trying to walk in place to lose weight - how many calories are burned?
On average, you will spend 250-500 kcal during an hour-long workout. The exact amount depends on the intensity of walking - the faster you move, the more energy you will spend. The recommended rhythm for beginners is 70 steps per minute. Continuing athletes should move at a speed of 90-100 steps per minute. For experienced ones, we recommend having time to take 130-150 steps, that is, practically running in place.
So we've figured out how many calories you burn when walking in place, but what if you want to increase your burn? Is there any way to increase the load?
How long should you walk a day to lose weight?
Walking can be beneficial for weight loss. To do this, it is enough to know how much you need to walk in order to lose weight or give your body elasticity. It is also a simple and economical exercise. To burn more calories and increase new muscle growth, you should add elements of strength training. Here are some exercises to try:
- squats;
- jumping;
- lunges forward or to the sides.
How much you need to walk per day to lose weight depends on your weight and speed. The heavier a person is and the faster he walks, the more calories he will burn.
Walking at a speed of 7.2 km/h allows a 70 kg adult to burn 336 kilocalories per hour.
Tracking your steps is a good idea. Many are guided by this when deciding how much to walk a day to lose weight. If you stop a random passerby on the street and ask him how many steps a day you need to walk in order to lose weight and feel good, the most popular answer will be: “Ten thousand.” Doctors say there must be at least four thousand.
Fitness bracelet with pedometer
Is it cardio or not?
To call walking a cardio activity, it must meet these conditions:
- exercises should speed up the heartbeat and blood circulation;
- you should not treat this exercise as a walk, the purpose of which is to “get some air”;
- To lose weight, you need appropriate intensity.
How does it affect body weight?
To find out how walking affects weight loss, it is enough to know how walking speed and physique are interrelated. For example, a lean person weighing 55 kg can burn 165 kcal by walking slowly for an hour (speed 3.2 km/h), while a person weighing 110 kg will burn 330 kcal during the same walk.
Walking quickly uses up a lot more energy. For example, a person weighing 50 kg, walking at a speed of 7.2 km/h, will burn 280 kcal, and a person weighing 80 kg will burn 309 kcal. For comparison, the average walking speed of most healthy adults is 4-5 km/h.
For the results to be noticeable, you should walk at a speed of more than 6 km/h. It is advisable to maintain this pace for at least 40 minutes, and preferably an hour. By doing such a load 4 – 5 days a week, there is a real chance to lose several kilograms in a month.
Is it possible to lose weight if you walk a lot?
If you walk a lot, you can lose weight. Walking, being a cardio exercise, stimulates all processes in the body, including fat burning.
Variations of the exercise
- Try to pick up dumbbells of 3-5 kg each. You can safely add another 150 kcal to your consumption;
- Place a small bench and simulate the ascent and descent of walking on stairs. Plus 300 kcal. Well, or you can always go out into the entrance and run up the stairs;
- You can walk in place using the interval principle - alternating a high pace with a slow one. In this case, the energy consumption of the exercise increases by 200 kcal;
- Do high knee raises. Plus 200 kcal.
Which is better - running or walking?
If you want to know which is better for losing weight: walking or running, you should consider the technique of doing both. When walking, the legs are straight most of the time, and the center of gravity remains calmly at the same height. And when we run, we actually jump from one leg to the other. Each bounce raises the center of gravity, and the landing lowers it again, so the knees bend to “absorb” the shock. This continuous vertical movement requires enormous counteraction to gravity. Accordingly, this requires more energy.
How to exercise correctly
Walking in place is an exercise for home; it does not require any specific skills, exercise equipment, or special clothing. Just buy comfortable sneakers and choose a shape that makes you feel comfortable.
Before starting class, stretch your joints and muscles and do short exercises. The last meal should be no closer than 2 hours ago. The average time for one workout is 40 minutes.
- Stand straight, place your feet shoulder-width apart, bend your arms at the elbows, look forward;
- Pull your shoulders back slightly, chest open;
- At a time, lift one knee up until your thigh is parallel to the floor. The opposite elbow goes forward, the other, respectively, back;
- Place your foot on the floor on two, lift the other knee, change the position of your elbows;
- Continue with the diagram. The foot is first placed on the toe, then gently rolled onto the heel;
- The body remains straight throughout the entire “walk”.
If you are trying to perform a high hip raise, aim to touch your chest with your knee. At the same time, maintain a straight back position, that is, do not bend your body towards your knee.
Many people ask what is the benefit of walking in place with the knee raised - we will answer: this way you increase the load and additionally use the abdominal muscles.
Breathe evenly, measuredly, rhythmically. The recommended pace is to inhale and exhale on the same leg.
So, we have discussed the description of the walking exercise for home, but in order to better understand its physics, let’s list what muscles it uses.
Walking for weight loss
Everyone is interested in whether walking in place is good for losing weight; reviews on the Internet are very mixed. We will answer you immediately and very honestly. Walking in place alone is unlikely to make your figure ideal in a short time. However, it will tone your muscles, prepare them for a higher load, and help you find the strength to go to the park on a treadmill or finally go to the gym.
To lose weight, you need to burn more calories than you consume. Accordingly, it is important to monitor your diet and lead a healthy lifestyle. Try to take at least 10,000 steps a day, and to control your counting, install any fitness app on your smartphone.
Walking in place at home will not allow you to quickly lose weight, but, with due diligence and diligence, it will definitely make you look better. The final result depends on the initial parameters, as well as on the time you spend on classes.
Try to spend every free minute exercising. For example, watching a TV series in the evening can be combined with a workout.
Walking at home: advantages and features
But before we move on to reviewing the most effective videos of walking at home, let's figure it out: why is walking necessary at all and what are its benefits?
Who is suitable for walking at home:
- People with significant excess weight who have restrictions on the types of loads.
- For beginners in sports who are just starting to master home workouts.
- For those who have joint problems or varicose veins.
- For those recovering from injuries.
- And also for those who are looking for simple workouts at home.
What are the benefits of walking at home?
1. Walking at home is a good cardio workout that will help you burn excess fat and lose weight.
2. Walking improves heart function, increases blood circulation and stabilizes blood pressure.
3. The risk of diabetes is reduced, which is especially important for overweight people who are susceptible to this disease.
4. Bones and muscles are strengthened, and joints are developed.
5. General well-being improves, a feeling of energy and vigor appears, and the immune system is strengthened.
6. Walking at home reduces stress and reduces the risk of depression.
Tips for walking at home:
- Walk in comfortable shoes, preferably sneakers.
- Wear light, comfortable clothing that does not restrict movement.
- Keep a bottle of water handy and try to drink throughout the session, taking a few sips every 10 minutes.
- If possible, use a heart rate monitor to monitor your heart rate and calories burned.
- Start exercising for 10 minutes 3 times a week. Gradually increase your sessions to 30-45 minutes.
- Try to train 3-5 times a week, depending on your time availability and goals.
- You can combine walking at home with watching your favorite TV series, this will make it easier to complete the workout from start to finish.
- You can make the workout more challenging by using light leg weights (not recommended for weak joints).
Who is it suitable for?
The walking in place exercise is perfect for beginner athletes who have absolutely no experience in the sports field. The load is considered gentle (about the same as Nordic walking), therefore, it is not prohibited during pregnancy, as well as in old age. Walking in place is practiced by athletes recovering from injuries who are prohibited from other types of exercise. This exercise is recommended for obese people for whom running and other types of walking are prohibited for medical reasons.
Benefits and harms
It's time to find out whether walking in place is useful and what its main advantages are!
- The exercise affects 80% of the muscles of the human body. Let only the buttocks and legs receive the main load, but the whole body is toned!
- Due to active movements, blood circulation and oxygen supply to every cell of the body improves. Vital redox processes are launched, metabolism improves;
- The cardiovascular and respiratory systems are strengthened;
- The fat burning process starts, waste and toxins are removed;
- The athlete's endurance threshold increases;
- Your mood improves and stress goes away.
Walking in place is unlikely to harm anyone. Unless you start exercising while in a state where, according to medical conditions, you can only lie down. Be careful with injuries, damage to the joints of your legs or spine, and never exercise if you feel unwell. This applies to older people, pregnant women, and ordinary young athletes who, for example, have a fever or an upset stomach.
So, we have studied the benefits and harms of walking in place, and at the end of the publication we will provide an approximate training program that is suitable for both beginners and intermediate athletes.
The story of how I lost 14 kg from walking
A story of successful weight loss without dieting
from reader Juliana
How did I end up living like this or how I wasn’t going to lose weight
It took me a relatively short time to get to my previous job – 15-20 minutes. by minibus or trolleybus + 10 min. walk from the bus stop to the office. In the summer, the trip became unbearable - in a stuffy, crowded transport, filled with appropriate aromas, in the company of people huddled closely together, tormented by the heat. And when I decided to walk to work, I didn’t even think about how it would somehow change me and my life. Of course, I heard recommendations to use walking for weight loss, read about the results in reviews of real people, but somehow I didn’t believe it... According to my constitution, I am inclined to be overweight. It takes a little time to gape, and the extra pounds quickly attack. By that time, there was something to fight with - at least 10 kg needed to be lost, because the entire previous year I had not been involved in any sports, and my work was sedentary. However, at that moment I in no way connected the desire to lose weight with the fact that one day in mid-May I decided to walk to work and back. Hearing about my intention, my husband only smiled sarcastically: “Can you handle it? About 7 km one way." “I can handle it,” I said confidently, not at all sure that I could really handle it.
Unexpected results
Although I had not thought about using walking to lose weight, the results were not long in coming. From the very first day of my walks, I walked both ways. During the entire first week, my body ached, not only my legs, but also my back, buttocks, and even in my abdominal area, just like after a full workout in the gym. I didn’t walk very fast, but not slowly either – at a normal pace, choosing the shade. In order to get from home to work, it took me a little over an hour of time (1 hour and 10-15 minutes). About a month and a half after I started walking, I met with relatives whom I had not seen for about 2 months, and heard addressed to me: “You’ve lost a little weight.” My psyche kindly allowed me to ignore the word “a little,” but the word “lost weight” caused me to associate it with my walks. I weighed myself and actually lost a little weight – I lost about 4 kg, but I didn’t expect such a result. By the end of the second month of walking, things began to fit me noticeably looser.
It's fun to walk together...
In the third month, my friend joined me. And after her, after listening to our reviews and seeing the results of losing weight from walking, a couple more employees. My walks have become more fun. By this time, I had already decided to treat walking as an interesting sport, so I paid attention to my diet - I tried to exclude fried, high-calorie foods, replacing them with vegetables, fruits, and low-fat dairy products. I walked all summer and almost all of September, with the exception of two weeks of vacation. At the end of September it rained a lot, and I had to stop my walks with a result of -14 kg in 4 months. It may not be as much as we sometimes want, but such weight loss does not stress the body, and besides, walking is good for the heart. I think if I had corrected my diet from the very beginning, the result would have been more noticeable. Tips for those who want to achieve results from walking to lose weight in the article: You can lose weight from walking - practical advice From the very beginning, during my walks, on approximately the same stretch of road, every morning I met the same man walking towards me ( Apparently, he’s also a fan of walking). A month and a half later, we started saying hello. It's a small thing, but nice. With the advent of autumn, I had to look for other ways to resist extra pounds, but that, as they say, is a completely different story. More interesting stories about losing weight: “Watermelon diet for weight loss - reviews and results of a thinner mom” “Water aerobics - reviews and results of a thinner girl”
Do you have an interesting weight loss story? Write it and send it to us - your successes will inspire thousands of women who have just begun their journey. Address
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