How walking every day can advance fitness levels

Check why and how you should incorporate regular walks into your workout routine and get results faster.

If you want weight loss to happen faster and last longer, regular activity is a very important component of your journey. Slimmium's online gym is here to support you, but any other activity apart from that is equally important.

Don’t be fooled – walking IS a form exercise

Walking is a low to moderate impact activity and it’s actually ideal for fat loss because the human body uses a higher percentage of fat if it’s not pushed to its limits.

Walking 10,000 steps a day burns around 3,500 kcal per week which is equal to half a pound of fat. This means that solely by walking you can create a big enough caloric deficit to lose a pound of fat biweekly, which is a perfect weight-loss tempo.

How much is 10,000 steps actually 

Generally speaking, 10.000 steps make a nice 1-hour walk, but, of course, it depends on your fitness level, how fast you’re walking, on what kind of surface, elevation and so on.

If you want to check how much you’re walking right now, technology is on your side.

Best ways to measure your daily steps:

• Pedometer
• Smartphones
• Smartwatches
• Activity trackers

Walking for endurance and walking for strength

A holistic workout schedule usually combines both – endurance and strength. In the case of walking, endurance exercises help you take long walks and strength exercises affect how fast you’re able to walk and whether you're able to enjoy more demanding terrains.

In short, it’s best to combine speed walking and long walks.

Speed walking: A shorter walk but with a pace that elevates your heartbeat to a point where it would be hard to speak during the activity.

Slow walk: An enjoyable lengthier walk of lower intensity.

How to start

It all depends on you. We suggest you take a simple test: try 10,000 steps in one go.

If you can’t do 10,000 in one go

If you can’t do 10,000 in one go (no matter how slow) focus on endurance and slowly increase the number of steps every day. If your muscles or knees get too sore, you can skip your training for 1 day per week. When reaching the 10,000 milestones, move to the next stage.

10,000 steps is just right for you

When you’re able to do 10,000 in one go, build a habit and start walking every day: 10 minutes slowly, 5 minutes as fast as you can, and finish with moderate-speed. When you build your stamina, add those fast-paced intervals every 10 minutes – one by one.

10,000 is too easy for you

When 10,000 steps in one go are too easy despite frequent 5-min speed-walk intervals, start shooting for 15,000 steps a day.

Start with focusing on endurance and when that milestone is reached, start incorporating strength training with 5-min speed-walk intervals every 10 minutes of a normal walk. If you can, try to do some intervals uphill.

How to boost progress?

For faster results, we recommend FatBurn EXTREME. It contains L-Carnitine, a fat burner that helps boost results even with moderate exercise. It boosts fat burning for hours, reduces fatigue and speeds up recovery.

With the FatBurn's help, you can also get a boost of energy and motivation to exercise, which further increases fat burning! Success guaranteed!