Benefits of walking
- Walking helps to improve your overall health and fitness and is a great way to lose weight, tone your muscles, strengthen your heart and instill a general feeling of well-being and positive self-esteem.
- It burns calories
- It can help towards maintaining a healthy weight
- It helps to boost your metabolism
- It helps to reduce body fat
- It boosts your energy levels
- It strengthens your legs
- It helps to strengthen the immune system
- It improves your circulation
- It lowers your blood pressure
- It helps to prevent and control diabetes
- It promotes positive mental health, including higher levels of self-esteem
- It helps you to manage stress and release tension
- It helps to improve the ability to fall asleep quickly and sleep well
- It may motivate your children to walk more if that’s what they see you doing and provides an activity to share with family members and friends
- It can be done almost anywhere
- It’s more environmentally friendly than driving
- It’s free
Fit More Walking Into Your Day
At Work
- Park your car in the space that is the furthest away and walk to the office
- If you take the train/bus get off a stop or two early and walk the rest of the way
- Walk to work
- On your lunch break go for a walk around the block
- If you need to speak to somebody in the office walk over to them instead of phoning them
- Walk to the local shop to buy your lunch
- Don’t take the lift, use the stairs
With the Kids
- Walk the children to school/playgroup
- Walk to the park and back with the kids at the weekend
- Find the time for one walk each week with each child – make this your special time when the two of you are alone and you can chat / catch up
- Plan fun exploration walks for the kids – get out and explore your local neighborhood
- Make it your mission to plan a new walk for each weekend – look out for local parks, country walks, etc
- If you drop your children at clubs / parties, don’t spend the time driving back and forth, go for a walk instead
With Friends
- Plan to go walking for fitness once a week with a friend
- If you plan to meet friends walk to their house, or get them to meet you half way
- Offer to join your friend when they are walking the dog
- Rather than meeting your friends for coffee, suggest going for a stroll
At Home
- Get up early and go for a walk
- Cancel the paper / milkman and walk to the shop instead
- If you run out of essentials, walk to the local shop to buy them – don’t take the car
- Walk whilst talking on the phone
- Set yourself a goal to walk up and down the stairs a certain amount of times per day
- Use the upstairs bathroom
- Whilst watching T.V. always get up and walk around during the adverts
How many calories will you burn walking?
A linear relationship exists at walking speeds of 3 to 5 km/hr and oxygen uptake but at faster speeds oxygen consumption rises making walking less economical.
Body mass can predict energy expenditure with reasonable accuracy at walking speeds of 2 to 4 mph (3.2 to 6.4 km/hr). The following table provides the amount of calories you will burn per minute for ranges of body mass (weight) and speed when you walk on a firm level surface (road, track or grass).
| Speed | Body Mass | ||||||||
| Kg | 36 | 45 | 54 | 64 | 73 | 82 | 91 | ||
| mph | km/hr | Lb | 80 | 100 | 120 | 140 | 160 | 180 | 200 |
| 2.0 | 3.22 | 1.9 | 2.2 | 2.6 | 2.9 | 3.2 | 3.5 | 3.8 | |
| 2.5 | 4.02 | 2.3 | 2.7 | 3.1 | 3.5 | 3.8 | 4.2 | 4.5 | |
| 3.0 | 4.83 | 2.7 | 3.1 | 3.6 | 4.0 | 4.4 | 4.8 | 5.3 | |
| 3.5 | 5.63 | 3.1 | 3.6 | 4.2 | 4.6 | 5.0 | 5.4 | 6.1 | |
| 4.0 | 6.44 | 3.5 | 4.1 | 4.7 | 5.2 | 5.8 | 6.4 | 7.0 | |
If your body mass is 64 kg and you walk at a speed of 5.63 km/hr then you will burn approximately 4.6 Calories/minute – if you walk for one hour you will burn 60 × 4.6 = 276 Calories
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