Is Walking the Best Way to Lose Weight Fast?

Losing weight is simple: Expend more calories than you consume and you lose weight. You can lose weight by decreasing calories consumed and increasing calories expended (physical activity). Increasing your caloric expenditure by 500 calories a day will lead to a weight loss of one pound per week.

  1. Walking vs. Other Cardio Activities

    • A 154-pound person walking at a speed of 4.5 miles per hour expends approximately 460 calories per hour. This same person would expend approximately 590 calories running at 5 miles per hour.

      Running is a more efficient calorie burner, but if you don't like doing it and, instead, prefer walking, a switch to running could eventually take you from nearly 500 calories expended per hour to zero. You're more likely to continue a physical activity that you enjoy.

      Other physical activities that provide a greater caloric expenditure per hour than walking are bicycling at greater than 10 miles per hour (590 calories), swimming (510 calories) and aerobics (480 calories).

    Walking for Weight Loss

    • If you're just beginning an exercise program, you need to start by slowly increasing your activity levels.

      For the first week, try to walk at an easy pace for 20 minutes over five days. If the first week went well, add five minutes to each walk the next week. Otherwise, repeat your first week until you're comfortable adding those five minutes. Add five minutes to each walk until you are able to walk for 30 minutes a day, five days a week.

      Once you've completed four weeks of 30-minute walks, you're ready to add some brisk walking to your routine. Replace one or two of your weekly 30-minute walks with a 20-minute walk at a brisk pace. Never do your brisk walks on back-to-back days. Separate them with a rest day or a 30-minute walk day. At the end of this four-week cycle, you should be able to complete two days of brisk walking and three days of easy walking.

      For the next four weeks, you'll add 5 to 10 minutes of walking to two of your 30-minute days. By the end of this cycle, you should have at least one day that includes 60 minutes of easy walking. It is OK to repeat weeks as needed until you are able to complete a 60-minute walk.

      Next, you want to increase the time of your brisk walks by 5 to 10 minutes per week with a goal of two 60-minute brisk walks, one or two 60-minute easy walks and one or two 30- to 45-minute easy walks.

      Once your weight loss has plateaued, try adding another day of walking or change some of your walks to interval sessions. An interval walk would be where you walk for 10 minutes easy, 2 minutes vigorously, 5 to 10 minutes easy, 2 to 4 minutes vigorously, repeating until you finish with 5 to 10 minutes easy.

      Note that you should only increase one aspect of your training every four weeks: Either add a day or increase intensity or duration. Increasing by more than one factor can lead to injury.