Losing weight with walking: how do you do that

Burning Fat with Walking

When it comes to weight loss, the goal is often to burn fat. Burning fat and walking make a great combination. This has to do with the intensity of the activity. At an intensity of 60 to 70 percent of your maximum heart rate, you burn more fat than when pushing yourself to the limit (2). A brisk pace (where you feel your heart rate rising but can still carry on a conversation) is the best way to burn fat while walking.

How often and how long to walk for weight loss?

How long should you walk each day to lose weight? And how often per week? It depends on your goal. One of our basic rules for healthy weight loss is to lose a maximum of half a kilo per week. To achieve that, you need to burn about 500 calories daily through walking. 

• One hour of walking per day: You burn 520 calories per day. That's half a kilo of weight loss per week, approximately two kilos per month.

• Half an hour of walking per day: You burn 260 calories per day. That means losing 250 grams per week, approximately one kilo per month.

  But perhaps you don't have time to walk every day. 

• Three times one hour of walking per week: 1560 calories per week. That means losing 220 grams per week, slightly less than a kilo per month.

• Three times half an hour of walking per week: 780 calories per week. That means losing 110 grams per week, slightly less than half a kilo per month.

As you can see, you need to walk regularly and for a considerable duration to lose a significant amount of weight.

Can you burn belly fat by walking?

What does walking do to your belly? The same as other forms of weight loss. Spot reduction of fat is not possible. Much research has been done on this (3, 4, 5), and it always concludes that fat disappears throughout the body and not in specific areas. Therefore, it's not possible to lose belly fat by walking.

Walking or running, which is better for weight loss?

During an hour of running, you burn more calories than during an hour of walking (6). Approximately twice as much. However, running every day can be challenging to sustain, and an hour of running is quite long. For beginners, a quarter to half an hour is already a significant challenge, burning approximately the same number of calories as an hour of walking.

When is the best time to walk?

You may have heard that walking before breakfast is better for weight loss, but there is no scientific evidence for this. Ultimately, weight loss is about creating a negative calorie balance over an extended period. The time of day you walk does not result in more or less calorie burning.

If you want to lose weight through walking, we recommend choosing a daily time that suits you and sticking to it over an extended period. Whether it's in the morning as soon as you get out of bed, a lunchtime walk, or a long walk after dinner with the dog - the best time is the one that you can consistently maintain.

Read also: How to form a new habit

Walking and healthier eating

If you don't have time to walk for an hour every day but still want to lose a few kilos, we suggest making adjustments to your diet. Our meal replacement shake can help with that. With Orangefit Diet and half an hour of walking per day, you can lose half a kilo per week, which is two kilos per month!

Orangefit Diet is low in calories but rich in proteins and fibers. It contains all the vitamins and minerals your body needs. It's ideal for (temporarily) replacing your breakfast or lunch, reducing your calorie intake by 250 calories. Earlier this year, the Consumer Association rated our shake as No. 1 in the meal replacement shakes test.