Is Walking on a Treadmill a Good Way to Burn Calories?

Treadmills can provide numerical data about speed and distance that, although not always perfectly accurate, can be motivating and helpful in tracking your progress. Although walking on a treadmill can help you establish a healthy routine and consistently burn calories, it’s not necessarily the top way to burn maximum calories because of its relative low intensity. You can make changes to your walking routine to boost calorie burn, however.

  1. Benefits of Treadmill Walking

    • In addition to being safe, convenient and low-impact, treadmills allow you to design custom walking workouts to meet your exercise goals, including calories burned. For example, if your goal is to burn 100 calories, you can walk until the 100-calorie mark appears on the treadmill screen. Although these readings won’t be perfect because of variations in age, weight and fitness level, they can provide a useful benchmark. Depending on intensity level, treadmills can burn more calories compared to other home exercise equipment, such as stationary bicycles.

    Ramp Up the Burn

    • Treadmill critics point out that these machines don’t perfectly mimic outdoor terrain, creating less-challenging workouts for participants. However, resetting the grade to just 1 percent creates a more realistic workout environment, according to the Chelsea School Research Centre. You can also create a more varied routine that includes steeper hills, side-step shuffling or walking backward to avoid getting bored. The University of San Francisco recommends creating stride speed drills to boost walking speed; for example, stepping down with the right foot about 80 to 90 times each minute. Burn extra calories by completing walking lunges, slowing the treadmill speed down enough to allow longer strides and deeper muscle work, Fit Sugar suggests.

    Treadmills and Your Arms

    • Incorporating arm work into your treadmill walking routine is another good way to burn calories. While you’re walking, pump your arms vigorously to boost cardiovascular activity and calorie burn. Alternatively, bring a light set of weights – 2 to 5 pounds -- onto the treadmill with you for some gentle muscle training as you walk. For example, perform 10 biceps curls and then rest the weights at your sides as you continue walking, University of San Francisco recommends.

    Better Ways to Burn Calories

    • Although walking on the treadmill can definitely burn calories, if calorie burn is your priority then other exercises might be preferable. According to Dr. Sanjay Gupta, writing for CNN.com in 2011, a 200-pound man walking on a treadmill at 4 miles per hour burns 113 calories in 15 minutes; the same man running on a treadmill at 6 miles per hour burns 151 calories in 10 minutes. To burn an equal number of calories while walking, you’d need to exercise longer. Running intervals -- mixing walking with running -- might be a effective way to compromise.