How Many Calories Do You Burn Walking?

Walking is one of the best exercises because it is easy on joints and utilizes major muscle groups. It is also easy enough for people of all activity levels to participate in. Walking is a lower intensity form of exercise, which means that although you may not burn as many calories as quickly as you would in other exercise, you are less likely to injure yourself. Most people spend quite a bit of their day walking, but how do you maximum calorie burning in your walking regimen?

How many calories you burn walking depends on a number of factors including how much you weigh, how fast you walk, how fast you walk, and the type of terrain you are exercising on. If you weigh approximately 145 pounds and walk three miles per hour, then you would burn around four calories per minute. This means that in a thirty-minute workout, you would burn 120 calories. There are about 3500 calories in a pound, so if you weighted 145 pounds and walked three miles per hour, it would take about 29 workouts to burn a pound. Even if you exercised five days a week, it would take over a month at that rate to lose a pound. In order to lose weight, you would have to up your calorie burning.

The more you weigh the more calories you burn for the same amount of exercise, which is why it is easier to lose weight when you first start out. Although you are not going to gain weight to burn more calories, you can carry small weights with you as you walk. Keep in mind that you will have to carry at least five or more extra pounds in order to make a difference. You can also try carrying a loaded backpack in order to distribute the weight and make it easier to carry.

Another thing you can do is to up your walking speed. Instead of a 20-minute mile, try to up your speed to a 15-minute mile. If you weigh 145 pounds and walk four miles per hour, then you will burn 165 calories in a thirty-minute workout. If you do not want to increase your speed, then you can try changing the terrain. Obviously, you burn more calories walking hills. If there are no hilly areas where you live than you can use the incline feature on a treadmill. This feature helps you burn almost twice the amount of calories without having to jog or carry weights. Walking inclines also helps sculpt your lower body because it activates more of your leg muscles. If you use some of these techniques, you can burn calories quickly and get to your ideal weight, or maintain it, without having to do high-impact sports.