How fast do you need to walk to lose weight? Well, the walking speed will be varied from person to person. Generally, if you want to boost your metabolism level and at the same time lose weight, you need to walk at a continuous pace. The faster you walk and the more resistance you add to your walking routine (i.e. the more you’re overweight), the more calories can be burned thus the more weight you lost.
In order to maintain weight and to burn excess fats by walking you need to do it properly. Here are some tips on proper walking styles you can adapt for a proper walking exercise:
- Walking with a straight posture including the back
- Swing your arms in front and back straight as high as 90 degree centigrade from the body
- How much steps you completed would depend on the length of your every single stride. Try taking shorter steps for more steps per minute instead of longer steps
- Maintain your walk in a straight line and keep your foot as close as possible to each other
- Try breath deeply
- When you just started out, start slowly first then increase gradually your distance, duration and walking speed for weight loss as you proceed
- Begin with a several minutes of walking routine during the first few days and progress to 30 - 60 minutes per day at least 5 days a week. If possible, try walking for an hour per day every single day for more weight loss results
- Do a few minutes of stretching before you walk
- Slow down your walking speed if you’re exhausted
- Heart rate is one of the factors that affect calories burning, higher the heart rate, higher calories will be burn. However, it’s recommended to attain not more than 60% - 80% of the maximum heart rate. So if you’re fit enough, consider brisk walking where you:
- Try divide your walking in three phase: start with a slow walking of 4 to 5 minutes to warm up, then progress to brisk walking and finish it with a slow walking of 4 to 5 minutes again to cool down
- While doing the brisk walking, you can also try interval style walking to permit your body to burn more fat and calories in shorter period instead of merely walk in a constant speed i.e. walk at a normal speed for the first minute and for the next 30 second speed up by walking briskly then slow back down to the original pace for another minute.
- A general rule of thumb on how fast do you need to walk to lose weight is to walk until you are slightly breathless; but still be able to continue your walk comfortably or carry on a short conversion; and keep that speed until the distributed time. If you’re going too hard and become breathless, you are likely anaerobically exercising which means your body gets energy from your carbohydrate stores instead of fat stores.
If you want to lose weight by walking, you need to walk as fast as you can while still be able to walk and talk comfortably; this is your most suitable walking speed for weight loss. When you do it right, your body will burn off more fats as you walk more and lose weight faster as you increase your walking speed.