How many calories do you actually burn while walking?

There is a massive misconception around just how many calories walking actually burns for the average person. Online you will find tens of different figures as to just how good walking is for you in terms of fat loss however there is more than meets the eye and more needs to be considered when working out is it worth walking as a way of burning calories.

Why should I even care about this?

Almost every medical body these days says that we need to be doing at least 10,000 steps per day, when you consider just how much 10,000 steps as per day it’s actually quite hard to be able to get that many in if you work in an office job or similar.

10,000 steps is a lot for the average person generally up only does around 3000 steps per day if they drive or get public transport on their morning commute. So obviously there is quite a big shortfall between the amount we should be doing and the amount we actually do end up doing. 10,000 steps per day they calculate for the average person will burn up to 500 calories.

This may not seem like that much really all things considered however 500 cal per day soon adds up to quite a lot if you are managing to hit your 10,000 steps per day.

How to best keep track of your steps?

Of course most people will fall short of this however is still a good target to be able to do and newer fit based watches and fitness trackers will allow you to monitor this with these. What it is not conclusive that you will definitely burn 500 cal per 10,000 steps there are lot of other different factors that come into account when working out just how many calories you will actually burn on this.

It’s easy to assume that you could actually be burning a lot more. If you weigh more for instance then you are easily gonna be burning a lot more calories because of the extra weight that you are carrying. The speed at which you are walking also greatly impacts the amount of calories that you are going to be burning per 10,000 steps it is also worth considering the type of terrain that you are walking on for instance if you are walking up steep hills then your 10,000 steps can be a lot harder then if you are simply walking on the flat.

Stopping and starting also make a big difference as to how many calories you will be burning. So there are a lot of different figures that come into play when trying to work out how many calories you’re burning so is not simple.

This is where fitness watches and fitness trackers can be a great way of taking out the equations needed to work out how many calories you’re burning. They often come with pieces of software that take into consideration all of your body factors to accurately work out just how many calories you are burning.

They also help to make sure that you reach your daily goal of steps. For instance, a lot of the trackers now notify you if you are being still for too long and staying stagnant when you should be getting up and moving. So they can be a great aid in helping you reach your goal. However, if you don’t have the money for one of these, they are just a tool and not something you absolutely need to be able to reach your goals of 10,000 steps per day.

10,000 is an awfully large amount of steps!!

Too bloody right!! But still, something I find it makes a massive difference when trying to reach your goal steps is to break it down into smaller chunks per day. Say if you are trying to reach 10,000 steps a day then you need to be able to break it down into smaller 2000 steps chunks that will allow you to easily meet the target. It really is the same as any sort of diet, if you cut out all your treats and all your snack straightaway then realistically there is no chance that you will be able to maintain that type along.

To give a bit of an example, I always want to make sure that I hit 2000 steps before I even have breakfast, this isn’t always the easiest way to do it however you be surprised just how quickly running around the house racks up your step count. If you can break this down into five little sections of 2000 steps then you will find that it’s much easier to attain rather than one massive 10,000 steps walk.

It could be that 2000 steps need to be done before breakfast and another 2000 need to be done before lunch as well as walking around the office you probably find that you’ve already done 5000 steps before you even managed to eat lunch. Allowing you to have easily hit half your target for the day. Then you can combine the rest of your steps with your afternoon exercise or workout program in the evening. It’s all about being creative with hitting your targets and making it seem that is not working out or hard work.

What effect is this going to have?

If you are regularly hitting 500 cal per day through your 10,000 steps alone, or even more than that, then you will start to see that you hit your weight loss goals a lot quicker than if you just diet alone. Diet can only take you so far, you do need to get out there and get some exercise to be able to reach your goal in a much more sustainable and long-lasting fashion. You are also gonna find that whilst weight loss becomes a lot easier, you also can find that your can see a much bigger body compositional change throughout your whole body not just your legs. Walking at pace through the long time can have massive muscle gaining properties over your whole body. Use a lot of your core, arms, chest, neck as well as your legs when you’re walking. When you start to climb hills you will find that you start to use different muscles that you are properly not useful for when walking on the flat, so overall you will find that you make a massive difference to your body composition. The extra calories that you burn. The show off all these muscle gains in a much nicer light that you will really start to be proud of

How to take it up to the next level!!

It is easy to be able to burn even more calories with your walking, and this is something I do on a regular basis to be able to up my calorie deficit for the day. Often I when I am walking the dog in the morning walk at a slightly faster pace than normal, which I find Burns a lot more calories then simply walking at standard pace.

I will also walk on inclines as well to be able to get my heart beating a lot faster and overall helps my leg muscles work a lot harder which are some of the biggest muscles in your body and can burn a lot of calories very quickly. It really is all about challenging yourself to better the day before. You are in a constant battle with yourself to be able to push yourself further and further to be able to burn more and more calories, eventually you won’t notice that you are doing this it will just become routine and ultimately that is the simplest and quickest way to be able to meet your weight loss goals and also live a much healthier lifestyle.

Conclusion and my thoughts!

They say that walking every day the meeting your 10,000 step goal is a perfect way to be able to live a healthy long life and after all is really not that hard to be able to walk 10,000 steps per day. So my best advice to you would be to make sure that you don’t get too hung up on your 10,000 steps in the beginning, and just make sure that you do start getting out there and burning some some calories rather than no calories at all.

Eventually, you will find it becomes more of a habit in your life that you need to start walking more and eventually you will become much more custom to burning those extra calories and walking these extra steps per day. If you are simply launching into 10,000 steps every day, then it is very unlikely you could be able to reach those every single day, and eventually you will end up stopping. So building up to that target is definitely the best way that I find to do it.

If you come from a background where you have not worked out much before, especially for walking or running, then don’t jump in at the top, ease your way into the target and you will find that you become accustomed to it and it simply becomes a part of your lifestyle rather than working out everyday.

Then from there on in once you stop being able to reach 10,000 steps per day easily then you can look to start increasing your workouts speed, increasing the incline in your walks, and also pushing yourself a little bit further to reach more than your 10,000 steps per day. Soon enough you’ll be running up flights of stairs!!!