Is walking really an exercise?
Apparently, I’m young and don’t feel walking is an exercise. Many seniors only need to walk for an hour a day for a daily dose of physical activity.
Walking is one of the most potent ways of keeping fit and maintaining a healthy weight. But how to burn 1000 calories a day walking?
It has been found that a person must walk at least 20,000 steps every day to achieve this goal. Or, they must walk an entire 8 miles to make it happen!
In this article, we will address this subject from different angles to find the correct answer.
So, let’s get started.
How To Burn 1000 Calories A Day Walking?
Your height, weight, pace, duration, and incline of your walk determine the number of calories you can burn. Since the 1960s, health experts have recommended 10,000 steps a day to maintain good health, fitness, and weight. 2000-2500 steps equal 1 mile.
Therefore 10,000 steps equal roughly 4-5 miles. Depending on your weight, this equates to about 250-600 burned calories.
Using the same rate, also depending on your weight, you need to walk 20,000-40,000 steps or 8-20 miles to burn 1000 calories walking in a day. However, it’s not that straightforward.
In the next parts of this post, we will dissect this subject in finer detail—this will explain how the different variables come into play when determining the number of calories burned while walking.
Factors Affecting the Number of Calories Burned Walking
1. Fitness Level
As a rule of thumb, the number of calories you can burn per given distance, time, or pace reduces with an increase in fitness levels. This is attributed to your body getting used to this regimen.
The tendency of the body to adapt to routine fitness regimens is common. This is the same reason progressive overload (increase in weight) is needed at the gym for muscle growth.
2. Ambient Temperature
According to The American Council on Exercise, walking in high temperatures increases your calorie expenditure as the body uses the extra energy to cool itself down.
On the other side, unless you are shivering during your workout, you will burn fewer calories in cold weather. This is assuming bodyweight, pace and time are maintained.
3. Duration
The longer you run, the more calories you burn. According to Harvard health publications, a 155-pound person burns 409 calories in 30 minutes of running at a pace of 6.7miles/hour.
The same person would burn 818 calories at the same speed in an hour.
4. Bodyweight
The bigger your body, the more calories you will need to burn to keep moving. For instance, a 124pound individual running at f 5miles/hospice r would burn 495 calories compared to 733 calories for a 185-pound individual at the same speed.
5. Speed
The faster you run the more calories you will burn per unit of time. However, the impact of speed on caloric expenditure may not be significant. For example, a 100pound individual would burn 53calories running at a speed of 2.5mph for 1 mile compared to 57calories at a speed of 4mph.
How Many Calories Does Walking Really Burn?
There is no definitive answer to this query. This is because the number of calories burned is dependent on your weight and pace.
Other things come into play as well. In the subsequent sections, we will estimate the number of calories burned walking in three ways: using a mathematical formula, distance and time.
a) Using a Mathematical Formula
Calories burned walking calculator
These are computing programs that factor in your age, height, weight, walking speed, duration of walking, BMR(Basal metabolic rate) and walking distance to give you the number of calories burned in a session. We recommend this calorie burned calculator for the best results.
b) By Time
Calories burned by walking 1 hour
Based on the fact that it’s practically impossible to maintain a constant pace during an hour’s walk, we will work with average values of walking speeds. The following is the average number of calories burned relative to your body weight and speed.
c) By Distance
Calories burned by walking 1 mile
To effectively determine the number of calorie s burned, speed and weight are the two determining factors. We will base our first calculation on normal walking speeds, like walking a dog. This is typically 2.5-3.5 miles/hour. The following is a table of calories burn at this pace relative to body weight
Note that these values are based on the first mile of your walk. Subsequent miles covered are bound to burn almost double the number of calories burned as glucose gets depleted from your muscles.
The number of calories burned increases with an increase in speed. However, the effect of speed is negligible in contrast with body weight. It’s recommended that you walk just a little faster, not too fast, to burn more calories. Let’s ramp up the pace to 4 miles/hour. Here’s how many calories you will burn based on body weight:
Again, you can confirm that body weight remains the biggest determinant of how many calories you can burn walking.
How to Burn More Calories by Walking
Walk on a Hilly Terrain
Walking in hilly routes place additional strain on your muscles compared to walking on a flat surface. This increases the amount of energy required to power your muscles up the hill, thus, more calories are burned. If you are walking on a treadmill, consider increasing the incline to produce the same effect.
Add Some Weights
Carrying weights increases the intensity of your walks. You can achieve this by wearing a weighted vest, holding a maximum of 3-pound hand weights, or carrying some dumbbells on your backpack if you don’t mind. For safety purposes and to avoid injury, be sure to keep them light.
Walk In Intervals
More calories are burned when you follow intermittent episodes of high-intensity bursts of walks with short resting intervals. Remember to keep your strides short and focus on moving your legs faster.
Walk With Friends
Joining a walking group will provide the much-needed motivation to walk at your target pace, for longer. This equals more burned calories.
Increase Your Pace
Your target here will be to go out of your comfort zone. It’s normal to find a typical walking pace that you maintain day in day out. Getting some hyped music or a faster buddy should help you increase your pace. When maintaining a conversation becomes hard due to shortness of breath, you are literally on the right trail!
Switch Up Your Route
If you scale the same terrain daily, it may get boring and less productive. From time to time, try different paths. This way, you will enjoy better views. You will also expose your legs to a slightly different manner of stimulation. The result is a more energetic walk, hence, more burned calories.
Useful Tools For Fat Burning
1. Walking Shoes
Comfort is key for better mobility. A pair of high quality, light sport shoes would give you the much-needed support for walking. Flat and flexible running shoes also work well.
2. Heart Rate Monitors
Heart rate sensors give valuable feedback on your fitness level. By knowing your heart rate level, you can maintain a pace that is consistent with the fat-burning level. Fat is burned the most at about 50-60% of your maximum heart rate.
Frequently Asked Questions
#How do I burn 1000 calories in an hour?
Burning 1000 calories in an hour requires extreme levels of prior fitness and planning. Before engaging in such strenuous activities, it’s recommended that you consult a medical specialist to advise whether or not you should proceed. Once clear, this is the best way to go:
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Sprint interval
Assuming you weigh 188 pounds, running at a pace of 7.46mph will burn 1,074 calories.
According to research conducted by the American Society Physiology Society, intensive interval training can burn up to 200 calories in 2.5 minutes.
As such, you can sprint for 30 seconds followed by 5 minutes of jogging for an hour. This can burn 1000 calories in about 30 minutes and you can still do this past your 40’s.
#How many calories do walking for 1 mile burn?
An average of 100 calories can be burned after 1 mile of jogging
#Can you lose belly fat walking?
Yes. There is no such thing as selective fat loss. The body converts fat to energy to facilitate any form of workout. Walking is an excellent way to burn calories, hence lose fat. However, it may not be as effective as other intensive exercises such as weight lifting.
#What exercise burns the most calories?
Running burns the most calories per hour. On the other side, HIIT (high-intensity interval training) continues to burn calories for up to 24 hours after a workout.
#How many calories do an average person burn in a day?
Men need around 2500 calories each day while women need about 2000 calories.