In a new study, which looks at activity tracker data from 78,500 people, walking at a brisk pace for about 30 minutes a day led to a reduced risk of heart disease, cancer, dementia and death, compared with walking a similar number of steps but at a slower pace.
Conclusions: Total body fat is lost through walking at all speeds, but the change is more rapid, clear, and initially greater with slow walking in overweight subjects. A longer exercise impulse at a lower speed in our study initially produced greater total fat loss than a shorter one with fast walking speed.
A longer walk may take more time, but the activity lowers your risk of injury and provides many of the same health benefits as walking faster. A longer walk builds endurance so that you can, over time, cover longer distances, Dr. Higgins says. Consistent walking allows you to gradually combine both distance and speed.
“The more your blood flows through your arteries, the more they trigger the self-renewal processes in your arteries,” he said, pointing out that faster-paced walking increases people's heart rate more than slower walking.
Walking for 30 minutes a day or more on most days of the week is a great way to improve or maintain your overall health. If you can't manage 30 minutes a day, remember even short walks more frequently can be beneficial.
Studies have looked into the effects of walking on reducing the potentially harmful triglycerides in your blood after a meal. 2 Walking for several shorter periods of time that added up to 30 minutes per day has been shown to be just as effective as taking one long walk.
Talking a stroll is one of the allowed forms of exercise, and it turns out, even walking slowly can be remarkably beneficial. Walking slowly not only burns more calories per mile, but it may also save wear and tear on the joints of those who are obese.
"Speed gets you more bang for the buck if you have limited time to exercise. About 15 minutes of high intensity [walking] a day equals about 30 minutes moderate intensity," he says.
And most experts will agree that adding between 20 and 30 minutes of exercise to your daily routine is a good place to start. The best part about walking for about 20 minutes a day is that it's an attainable goal.
Slower walking speed in the elderly may be explained by loss of muscle strength and mass. Summary: Research has found that elderly people walk at a slower speed and tire more quickly because of loss of strength and mass in leg muscles.
A slower walk as you age has always been a warning sign of increasing frailty that could lead to falls and other disabilities, experts say. Emerging research in small groups of elderly subjects has also found that a slower gait from year to year may be an early sign of cognitive decline.
Multiple short walks can be just as good as one long walk for your health and fitness goals. Short walks are easier to fit in a busy schedule, and they allow you to get your steps in anywhere, any time. Breaking up your active time into smaller chunks can also benefit beginner walkers and people with health conditions.
How much should I walk to lose 10 kg? 30 minutes a day of brisk walking or power walking 5 days a week can help you reduce up to 10 kgs.
If you plan to walk for 4 miles (or 6.4 km) a day, you will begin to lose weight almost immediately. But along with your exercise routine, you need to maintain a balanced and healthy diet so that you don't put on the calories you're working hard to burn.
What does 10,000 steps look like? Ten thousand steps equates to about eight kilometres, or an hour and 40 minutes walking, depending on your stride length and walking speed. But that doesn't mean you have to do it all in one walk.
If you want to have an effective cardio session to help improve your overall cardiovascular endurance, you should walk on a treadmill for a minimum of 30 to 60 minutes a day, five days a week.
The average person takes 2250 steps per mile, which takes approximately 20 minutes to accomplish. At this pace, it will take about 1 ½ hours to reach 10,000. If you did nothing else all day, you could still achieve your 10k goal in about an hour and a half. That's doing nothing and then stepping on a treadmill.
The American Heart Association recommends 30 minutes of moderately intense exercise, such as a brisk walk at about 3 mph on a treadmill, five times per week. If the exercise is vigorously intense — comparable to jogging — three times per week for 20 minutes is the recommendation.
A brisk 10-minute daily walk has lots of health benefits and counts towards your 150 minutes of weekly exercise, as recommended in the physical activity guidelines for adults aged 19 to 64.
Speed Matters When Walking for Fitness
If you're walking for your health, a pace of about 3 miles per hour (or about 120 steps per minute) is about right. That's a 20-minute mile. To walk for weight loss, you'll have to pick up the pace to 4 miles per hour (or 135 steps per minute), a 15-minute mile.
The ideal time would be in the morning, before having your breakfast. At this time your body is already in a calorie deficit mode, and walking can ignite the body's ability to burn fat.
If you can't set aside that much time, try several short sessions of activity throughout the day. Any amount of activity is better than none at all. Even small amounts of physical activity are helpful, and accumulated activity throughout the day adds up to provide health benefit.
According to researchers from the Healthy Lifestyles Research Center at Arizona State University, three 10-minute workouts may be even more beneficial for your heart than one 30-minute session. That's good news for your health and your schedule.