How Much Should You Walk to Lose Weight?

When you need to lose weight, many diet plans and health experts recommend brisk walking as a calorie-burning cardio workout. But what is the right number of walking each day to help you achieve your weight loss goals?

How Long to Walk Every Day for Weight Loss

Aim for a brisk walk of 30 to 90 min most days of the week for weight loss. You can walk also on some days and less on others, but the total time for the week should be at least 180 minutes (3 hours).

You should walk quick enough that you are in the moderate-intensity workout zone at 60 to 70 percent of your highest heart rate. You should be breathing harder than normal and can speak in full sentences, but you couldn't sing. You can use your heart rate and exercise zone reading from a fitness group, app, or heart rate monitor to ensure you are exercising at moderate intensity.

While you can break up your walking time into periods of 15 minutes or longer, you take an added advantage of burning fat when you walk at a brisk pace for lengthier than 30 minutes at a time after warming up.


If you're new to walking, get begun with shorter periods of walking and steadily make up your walking time. You might want to take long walks each other day at first.

Try don't skip more than one day in a row. Consistency is excellent for burning calories and improving your metabolism, as well as for building new habits. On your non-walking days, try strength training workouts. If you get yourself worn out, take a day off. But be certain to get back walking the following day.

If you've hit your weight loss goal and are fighting on maintaining your weight, the CDC suggests you should spend 60 to 90 minutes most days of the week in moderate-intensity physical activity while not eating calories than you expend all day.

How Far Can You Walk in 30 Minutes?

If you walk at a quick walking pace for 30 minutes, the distance you will cover would be:

1.5 to 2.0 miles.
2.5 to 3.3 kilometers
3,000 to 4,500 pedometer steps.

What If You Can't Walk for 30 Minutes at a Time?

Life can be busy. If your schedule doesn't permit walking continuously for 30 minutes, break it up into walking two or three times a day for shorter periods of at least 10 minutes at a brisk pace.3

Constantly warm-up for 5 minutes at an easy pace no matter what duration you will be walking. You can use higher-intensity intervals, stairs, and brisk walking to get the most out of shorter walking exercises. Research published in 2017 shows that high-intensity intervals are at least as good as continuous moderate-intensity workouts and can be a good way to fit exercise into your day.4

Calories and Fat Burned in 30 Minutes

At a brisk walking pace, you would burn 120 to 300 calories in 30 minutes (depending on your weight) or 240 to 600 calories in an hour. By walking for 30 minutes or more at a time, some of the calories will be from stored fat.

During the first 30 minutes of exercise, your body is burning sugars collected as fuel. These are used up after about 30 minutes. To keep going, your body releases fat from your fat cells and burns it for fuel. This stored fat is precisely what you want to lose, and it's a good reason to build up your walking endurance so you can walk for more further than 30 minutes at a time.

Walk most days of the week for at least 30 minutes to burn another 1,000 to 3,000 calories in total for the week and to improve your metabolism each day.

A Word From Verywell

You've got the first step towards a healthy weight and an energetic lifestyle. It may sound a little daunting to think of how much dynamic activity is necessitated to burn calories. But it's also the number recommended to reduce your health risks for diabetes, heart disease, and more.