For a person with excellent fitness, an approximate moderate walking pace: 15 minutes per mile (4 miles per hour) 9 minutes per kilometre (6.4 kilometres per hour)
Beginner walkers can try out a speed of 5 km per hour to start the habit of going for a walk everyday. Intermediate-level walkers can take on anything from 6 to 6.5 km per hour. Try this for at least 40 minutes a day with one or two days of slightly longer durations.
Findings. The researchers found, for most people, brisk walking could be defined as moving at a pace of 2.7 miles per hour or 100 steps per minute for adults under about age 60.
The average walking pace is 2.5 to 4 mph, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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.
Many people tend to walk at about 1.42 metres per second (5.1 km/h; 3.2 mph; 4.7 ft/s). Individuals find slower or faster speeds uncomfortable.
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.
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.
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.
Walking for 30 minutes at a brisk pace covers a distance of 2.0 to 2.5 km and burns about 125 calories (520 kiloJoules).
Average Running Paces
A good running pace for women is 8.4 kilometres per hour, while that for men is 9.4 kilometres per hour. That translates to a minute kilometre of 0.14 per minute for women and approximately 0.16 km per minute for men.
You might start with five minutes a day the first week, and then increase your time by five minutes each week until you reach at least 30 minutes. For even more health benefits, aim for at least 60 minutes of physical activity most days of the week.
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.
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.
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. In fact, walking just one mile burns about 100 calories.
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.
Physical activity, such as walking, is important for weight control because it helps you burn calories. If you add 30 minutes of brisk walking to your daily routine, you could burn about 150 more calories a day. Of course, the more you walk and the quicker your pace, the more calories you'll burn.
If you have to choose a single walking distance standard for all situations, the most commonly cited standard is 400m or 1/4 mi. Europe tends to be comfortable with slightly longer distances.
THE BENEFITS OF WALKING TWICE A DAY
Being sedentary for long periods of time during the day can lead to problems associated with obesity, heart disease, and other health-related illnesses. For this reason, adopting a routine that involves multiple walking sessions per day instead of just one can be beneficial.
There is no set number of miles that is considered too much (or too little) for all walkers. However, it is wise to start with shorter walks and gradually increase mileage as fitness goals are met.
The average walker finishes a 5K in 45 to 60 minutes.
If the average stride length is 80 centimetres, it takes 1250 steps to walk one kilometre.
According to a study published in the American Journal of Physiology, 30 minutes of daily exercise is just as effective for losing weight as 60 minutes.