According to the CDC, a “brisk walking” pace for most people is 3 miles or 5 kilometers per hour, or about 20 minutes per mile and 12 minutes per kilometer. Walking faster than 4 miles per hour (under 15 minutes per mile) is considered a fast pace — and definitely cardio.
If you want to walk at a more vigorous pace, aim for 15 to 16 on the scale. If you're just starting out, try to maintain a brisk walking pace of 3 to 3.5 miles per hour (mph). If you're already fairly active, aim for a pace of 3.5 to 4.5 mph.
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.
Walking is a great way to improve or maintain your overall health. Just 30 minutes every day can increase cardiovascular fitness, strengthen bones, reduce excess body fat, and boost muscle power and endurance.
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)
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.
Conclusions: Total body fat is lost through walking at all speeds, but the change is more rapid, clear, and initially greater with slow walking in overweight subjects. A longer exercise impulse at a lower speed in our study initially produced greater total fat loss than a shorter one with fast walking speed.
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.
Slow walking as a form of meditation and centering differs from walking for exercise; it's not a cardio exercise meant to raise your heart rate. However, there are indeed physical benefits. Surprisingly, walking slowly 2 miles per hour burns more calories than fast walking 3 to 4 miles per hour.
According to the best cardiac surgery hospitals, walking is considered to be the best form of cardio activity. But to give a challenge to your cardiovascular system, you are required to walk at a speed and intensity that increase the load on your heart, muscle, and lungs.
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.
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.
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.
The researchers estimated that doing just 20 minutes of brisk walking every day or the equivalent (which would burn about 90 to 110 calories), would elevate a person into the “moderately inactive” group and reduce their risk of early death by 16 to 30 percent.
On average, adults should strive for at least 150 minutes of cardio exercise each week. That's the equivalent of about 20 minutes a day each day of the week, 30 minutes five times a week, or 50 minutes three times a week. If time is your enemy, you can strive for a 20-minute dog walk or jog each day to meet your goal.
Walking and running are both excellent forms of cardiovascular exercise. Neither is necessarily “better” than the other. The choice that's best for you depends entirely on your fitness and health goals. If you're looking to burn more calories or lose weight fast, running is a better choice.
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.
Talking a stroll is one of the allowed forms of exercise, and it turns out, even walking slowly can be remarkably beneficial. Walking slowly not only burns more calories per mile, but it may also save wear and tear on the joints of those who are obese.
If you plan to walk for 4 miles (or 6.4 km) a day, you will begin to lose weight almost immediately. But along with your exercise routine, you need to maintain a balanced and healthy diet so that you don't put on the calories you're working hard to burn.
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 1 hour each day can help you burn calories and, in turn, lose weight. If you'd like to lose a substantial amount of weight (more than 5% of your body weight), the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommends getting at least 300 minutes of moderately intense physical activity weekly.
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.
The first place men typically lose weight is the belly, while women tend to lose weight all over, but hold onto weight in their thighs and hips, Dr. Block explains.