While everyone’s body is different, there is a simple formula for kick-starting weight loss: eat less, move more. Still, if you’ve wondered just how much more you’d need to walk to start shedding pounds, let’s dig into the specifics.
The average person walks about 2,000 steps in a mile, which burns roughly 100 calories, according to Courtney Meadows, an NASM-certified personal trainer and fitness coach. “One pound of fat equals 3,500 calories,” Meadows told POPSUGAR. So, in order to lose one pound a week – a healthy goal, according to experts – you’d need to burn 500 calories a day. “That means you should aim for about 10,000 steps a day, which is the equivalent of five miles.”
If that number seems intimidating, remember that it includes everything you do during the day, like walking around your house or the store.
Related: Want to Lose Weight? Try This Celebrity Trainer’s Simple, 4-Week Walking Plan
Variety is key to keeping your body in weight-loss mode, so create a workout plan that will help you switch up your walk each day and avoid hitting a plateau. Meadows suggests adding weights, throwing in lunges, or increasing your distance to take it up a notch.
“You can even play around with intervals, which will maximize cardiorespiratory benefits,” she said. Try walking for 30 seconds at a pace at which you would still be able to hold a conversation, and then for the next minute, walk fast enough that you’re breathing heavily.
Here’s an interval walking workout to try on the treadmill and a 30-minute walking and bodyweight glute routine you can do indoors or outside! Ten-thousand steps a day? You’ve got this.
