5 Science-backed tips to lose weight walking

Most people know about the 10,000-step benchmark for weight loss. But you can lose weight through walking, and it doesn’t have to be daunting.

This article explains how you can do it through actionable and science-backed steps.

1. Take more active breaks

Andrew Huberman from Huberman Labs explains that your metabolic rate influences weight loss. Bear with me as I delve into this a bit; it’ll help you, I promise.

The famous scientist takes you through various research through his podcast and YouTube videos.

The point of most studies he cites is more movement throughout the day helps you burn fat faster. And you can easily do that by walking.

You don’t have to take those 10,000 steps in one go. You don’t even have to run or walk uphill for that exercise to count toward weight loss.

But you should take more active breaks to increase your metabolic rate.

Increasing your metabolism helps you burn more calories on a regular basis. By comparison, walking 10,000 steps helps you burn just 200-300 calories.

In the long run, those 200 calories will not count for much. But keeping your metabolism elevated will help you with long-term weight loss.

2. Do chair walking

Many people can’t take 10,000 steps per day. Some can’t even take 2,000 because of long days spent at the office or in the car. 

Older adults and those with some specific injuries may feel discouraged to even think about a walking routine, let alone start it.

Let’s get back to Huberman for another quick science-based gem.

Huberman says that the soleus muscles in your calves are designed to withstand constant movement. By comparison, other body muscles, like our biceps and triceps, can’t do that.

The soleus muscles are primarily used for walking. But keeping them activated throughout the day has been proven to increase your metabolic rate and improve your insulin resistance.

Basically, engaging the soleus muscles as much as you can on a daily basis facilitates weight loss.

So how can you activate it?

Chair walking – aka lifting one foot at a time while seated to contract this muscle – will help you lose weight even if you are sedentary. 

3. Get a treadmill

Walking on a treadmill can help you become more active throughout the day if you work from home or during the weekends. If you always bump against that thing in your home, you’re bound to use it.

Besides, a treadmill can motivate you to start walking during your favorite show or when it’s raining outside.

Pro tip: To increase weight loss, walk at an incline. Studies show that even a 1% increase in incline can accelerate caloric burn considerably.

4. Turn walking into a daily routine

Walk around the block after dinner, with your kids, or with your dog. Start parking further away from your workplace and walk to it.

Walk to your colleagues instead of texting them.

And make a habit of hiking with your friends or family on weekends.

5. Do walking workouts

Don’t have enough money or space for a treadmill? Try walking routines; YouTube is filled with them, though my favorite is the Happy Walk series from Leslie Sansone.

These workouts can be more effective than regular walks because they activate your entire body’s muscles from different angles.

So you’ll be walking forwards, backwards, sideways, and so forth.

You’ll also be using your upper body quite a lot too. And since you’re using more muscles in different ways, you achieve two results:

One: You’re burning more calories.

Two: You’re avoiding weight loss plateaus because your body isn’t getting used to just one movement.

How long do you need to walk to lose weight?

Ideally, you would need to walk as much as possible throughout the day to increase your metabolic rate. Even if you can’t walk long distances – or even short distances – remember that chair walking is a useful tool to accelerate weight loss too.

Remember to try walking workouts too, or enroll in your local gym to do some treadmill walking. Professional treadmills have plenty of walking programs you can try; my favorites are hill climbing and HIIT walking.

But I’m sure you’ll find your own thing.

Hopefully, this article helped you get started! 

Mary D. Brown

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