If you’re thinking about establishing a daily walking habit, you’re on the right track. Walking is a seamless addition to your fitness routine; it doesn’t require equipment, it’s free, and you can do it while taking work calls or catching up on an audiobook. Plus, it’s an excellent calorie burner, and it gives you the opportunity to explore new sites and trails. To help you get started, we have 10 expert walking tips for beginners to lose more weight.
Lacing up your sneakers and heading out on a walk is always a good idea. It’s a stellar way to bump up the amount of physical activity you do without majorly increasing the stress of that exercise.
“Walking is also super flexible when compared to other types of exercise,” explains Domenic Angelino, CPT at International Personal Trainer Academy (IPTA). “You can walk pretty much anywhere—the gym, outside, or around your apartment. Walking is something that you can adapt to the ever-changing demands of your life, unlike many other types of exercise. If something comes up and you won’t have the time to make it to the gym, you no longer have the option of doing a stair climber workout. But you do have the option of doing a quick walking workout.”
Additionally, walking makes your fitness routine all-around more sustainable. Because let’s be honest: The more challenging and grueling your workouts are, the more challenging they will be to stick with.
If you’re ready to get started, let’s dive into 10 of the best walking tips for beginners to lose more weight.
Choose a manageable amount of weekly walking sessions.
Make sure your weekly walking goal is easy to maintain. This will vary depending on the week and how motivated you feel.
“It can be tempting to plan your walking workouts to match what you could do on a good week—but don’t,” Angelino stresses. “Try to set your expectations based on what you can do on a bad week. This helps you always meet expectations, which can have a huge impact on your motivation to keep going over time. This helps you stick to exercise longer, which means more overall fat loss.”
Tweak your pace depending on your energy level.
Be mindful of your energy level, and adjust your walking pace accordingly.
“You aren’t forced to commit to a specific walking speed during your workouts. If you find you have more energy during a workout than you normally have, it’s fine to walk faster than the pace you initially planned to walk at,” explains Angelino. “Most people pick one pace and stick to it, regardless of how they’re feeling. But upping your pace when you have more energy can help … you burn more calories and lose more weight overall.”
Wear a weighted backpack or rucksack.
Rucking is all the rage right now—and for good reason. People are ditching their regular walks for rucking; they’re strapping on weighted backpacks to reap the benefits of a cardio and strength training workout all in one.
“Wear a rucksack or weighted backpack for more calorie burning,” Angelino encourages. “You can increase the amount of work your muscles do during your walk by increasing how much weight they need to move around with each step you take. Normally, this is limited to the weight of your body itself. But you can increase your body’s weight artificially by loading it with special weighted equipment like a rucksack.”
Slowly adjust your walking workouts as you progress.
It’s no secret that regular exercise helps you get in better shape. So what you can accomplish on day 30, for instance, will likely look very different from when you’re just starting out.
“If you created your workout program before day 1, it might no longer be a good fit for the version of you that exists on day 30,” Angelino explains. “In order to account for this, regularly adjust your walking sessions to reflect what your body is capable of. If you can maintain a faster pace or walk [longer], then update your workout programming to reflect that.”
This helps you get the biggest bang for your buck in the long term.
Choose a steep or hilly route.
When you feel comfortable doing so, incorporate inclines and hills whenever possible. You’ll torch more calories going uphill compared to a flat surface.
“Your muscles will need to do way more work with each step you take, meaning they’ll need a bunch of extra calories to fuel that additional work,” Angelino points out. “This also comes with a second hidden benefit. It helps your muscles improve their endurance and get a bit stronger.”
Don’t forget about pre-workout nutrition.
Having a pre-workout nutrition regimen on deck is the name of the game. Angelino suggests enjoying a carb-dense snack before your walk, which can help you melt more fat in the long run.
“It gives your body plenty of glucose to break down for energy and fuel your workout,” he adds. “This means you’ll be able to, on average, walk for longer and at a faster pace. This doesn’t mean eating more total calories per day than you normally would; this means shifting some of the calories you’d take in any way at another point in the day to just before your workout.”
Add “mini walks” to your week.
“Exercise snacking” or going on mini walks can help you add even more physical activity to your routine, further enhancing your weight-loss efforts.
“Exercise doesn’t have to be limited to a structured workout,” Angelino tells us. “If you make small decisions during the week that increase the amount of walking you do in your daily life organically, you’ll lose more fat overall. This only adds to the effects your structured walking workouts have on weight loss. Consider parking your car farther from store entrances or taking the stairs more often.”
Multitask while walking.
A common excuse for not exercising enough is feeling like you don’t have the time to do so. Address this by killing two birds with one stone. For instance, you can get in your steps while listening to your audiobook for book club, catching up with loved ones on the phone, taking a work call, or listening to the news.
“Even if this slows down how quickly you can complete the task you’re bundling together with walking, it can save more time overall since you don’t have to worry about doing each activity individually,” Angelino says. “Multitasking can help you justify longer walking sessions, [directly leading] to more fat loss.”
Attach your walking sessions to other workouts.
Adding a quick walking session to the start of your routine can help increase the total amount of calories you torch from other workouts, such as strength training or lifting weights.
“This helps you burn more calories because you’re exercising more, and it’s easy to do since you’re at the gym anyway,” says Angelino. “It also has a secondary benefit of helping you warm up for your weight-lifting workout, which increases the quality of your weight-lifting session in addition to helping you burn more overall calories.”
Choose outdoor walks over the treadmill.
Whenever you can, head outdoors for your walks rather than the treadmill.
“You’ll burn a bit more calories when you’re walking around normally as opposed to [walking] on a treadmill,” Angelino explains. “This does not make treadmills a bad thing because [it’s] excellent at helping you burn calories. Plus, [treadmills] are pretty convenient to use, even when the weather isn’t too great. But, you will generally burn a bit more calories when walking without one.”
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