Average walking speed by age: 20-29 years: 3.00 mph (4.83 km/h) 30-39 years: 2.82 mph (4.54 km/h) 40-49 years: 2.82 mph (4.54 km/h) 50-59 years: 2.75 mph (4.43 km/h)
For a person with excellent fitness, an approximate moderate walking pace: 15 minutes per mile (4 miles per hour)
Most healthy people will be able to maintain a walking speed of 6 km per hour for a longer duration. Listed below are some examples to help you find the speed that is best suited for you. Elderly people or children should feel comfortable while maintaining a speed of 3.5 km per hour.
The pace most often recommended is a brisk pace which translates to about 90-110 steps per minute or 4-5 km/hour. Slow down if you find it difficult to breathe easily; it is better to walk a little too slow than too fast.
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.
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.
Brisk Walking Speeds
This is equivalent to 6.4 kilometers per hour. To achieve a 15-minute mile walking pace, you will need to walk at 4 to 5 miles per hour (6.4 to 8 kilometers per hour). You can calculate your walking pace after measuring the time it takes you to walk a mile or a kilometer.
By walking for 1 hour at 6km/h, you will burn an average of 300 Kcal. By walking regularly at this speed, your efforts will end up bearing fruit and then enable you to accelerate.
Common walking paces are: Easy walk: 20:00 minutes per mile (3 mph) or 12:25 minutes per kilometer or slower. Moderate to brisk walk: 15:00 to 20:00 minutes per mile or 9:19 to 12:25 minutes per kilometer. Fast walk: 15:00 minutes per mile or 9:19 minutes per kilometer or faster.
Walking is a form of low impact, moderate intensity exercise that has a range of health benefits and few risks. As a result, the CDC recommend that most adults aim for 10,000 steps per day . For most people, this is the equivalent of about 8 kilometers, or 5 miles.
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.
Generally, older adults in good physical shape walk somewhere between 2,000 and 9,000 steps daily. This translates into walking distances of 1 and 4-1/2 miles respectively. Increasing the walking distance by roughly a mile will produce health benefits.
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.
Walking speed is an important dimension of gait function and is known to decline with age.
Average walking speed by age:
40-49 years: 2.82 mph (4.54 km/h) 50-59 years: 2.75 mph (4.43 km/h) >60 years: 2.71 mph (4.36 km/h)
Walking is a moderate-intensity exercise that can be easily incorporated into your daily life. Simply walking more often can help you lose weight and belly fat, as well as provide other excellent health benefits, including a decreased risk of disease and improved mood.
Walking might not be the most strenuous form of exercise, but it is an effective way to get in shape and burn fat. While you can't spot-reduce fat, walking can help reduce overall fat (including belly fat), which, despite being one of the most dangerous types of fat, is also one of the easiest to lose.
How far do I need to walk to lose weight? In the early stages you should aim for 6,000 steps a day, eventually progressing to a standard target of 10,000 to 12,000 steps which equates to closely 8-10km. For those who are walking to remain active and maintain their weight then 10,000 to 12,000 steps is recommended.
Distances and Common Times
Kilometer: A kilometer is 0.62 miles, which is also 3281.5 feet, or 1000 meters. It takes 10 to 12 minutes to walk at a moderate pace.
At a brisk walking pace of 3 mph (4.8 kph), you'll walk 1.5 miles in 30 minutes (2.4 km). At 4 mph, you'll go 2 miles (3.2 km). That's a good distance that will work up a sweat, but not so far that it's unattainable for most experienced walkers!
Though walking speeds vary, the Department of Transportation agrees that most people can walk a half-mile in about 10 minutes.
That's anywhere between 3,000 and 3.750 steps for that 30 minute walk. You can estimate about 3,300-3,500 steps as a good proxy for 30 minutes walking.
Since cadences were only measured for 3 MET (slow) and 5 MET (fast) walks, 122 steps/min is a mid-way estimate for a 4 MET walk. This produces an estimate of 3,660 steps in 30 minutes and 7,320 steps in 60 minutes.
How many steps is a 5k? A person of average height can expect to take around 6250 steps over a 5k distance (based on an estimated stride length of 2.1 to 2.5 feet).