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One of the best things about treadmills is that you can run at any speed, but if running isn’t your cup of tea, you can walk your way to fitness. Owning the best treadmills lets you choose or create a pre-set program for your workout routine.
Walking on a treadmill is a great start to building your body and preventing injuries. But for some, walking can be the best option for losing weight. So if you’ve been wondering if you can lose weight walking on a treadmill, the answer is that it will depend; your diet plan, warm-ups, and other gym routines play a part.
You can lose weight by walking on a treadmill by aiming to burn 300 calories per day. We’ll be discussing how and why you can lose weight with the simple action of walking!
Answering: can you lose weight walking on a treadmill?
A treadmill is a form of cardio exercise that makes you move your entire body, encouraging all-around muscle group building. If you were to walk on a treadmill for a certain amount of time and follow a workout plan to burn fat, it would lead to losing weight. So to answer can you lose weight walking on a treadmill, you definitely can!
But walking alone without switching up your workout intensity will make weight loss harder. Customizing your treadmill’s programs, such as adding speed changes and an incline, are a few keys to making your walks more challenging, hence effective for burning calories.
According to Live Strong, walking can result in weight loss by doing so 150 minutes per week, while Very Well Fitness recommends 60 minutes per day. You can separate the minutes into smaller time groups such as 15 to 20 minutes of high-intensity training while adding an extra 15-minute treadmill walk to top it off.
Losing weight by walking on a treadmill is possible, but it requires you to put in the effort and patience to improve your treadmill walk routine as you go on. Burning how many calories will also depend on what other exercises you will pair with your treadmill workout.
Benefits of treadmill walking for weight loss
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Walking on a treadmill is one of the easiest and most effective cardio, providing benefits to your body and workout routine. It may seem like mild exercise, but consistency is the key, especially when you aim to burn calories. Here are the benefits you get from treadmill walking:
- Convenience – Going for a walk won’t be disrupted by bad weather or time since treadmills promote indoor exercise.
- Motivation – Having gym equipment helps you motivate your weight loss journey and will make it easier to track your progress and workouts.
- You’re in control – One of the best things about treadmills is it comes with pre-set and adjustable programs to fit your needs.
- Milder to the body – Walking is less straining to your joints and causes less fatigue since it requires less power on a smooth surface.
- Health – Since treadmill walking is also a form of cardio, it promotes blood sugar regulation and endurance. It provides all the benefits of cardio exercises.
Weight loss by treadmill walking will take more time, but it is possible with the right amount of motivation and staying committed to your fitness plan!
Tips for treadmill weight loss
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There are different ways to make your treadmill walk routines more effective. May it be building your workout intensity or walking for a certain amount of time per week. It all falls on having a schedule and disciplining yourself to stay on track.
The first thing to remember is that you need to save time if you aim to lose weight through treadmill walking. You will be walking for a long time and will be adjusting your weight loss program over time once your fitness level increases as you follow your plan. An average treadmill walk per day is at least 40 minutes, excluding your warm up and other exercises.
Losing weight by walking will take time, but the key is to follow your schedule and improve it. Here are some basic treadmill walking workout tips suggested by Very Well Fit
Week 1
You can use these workouts as a basis for your treadmill walks. Here are the recommended exercises for the first week:
Stretching and active fun
Stretching and warm-ups don’t have to be alone! Stretching before working out loosens up your muscles and joints. You can warm up by doing an easy jog, biking, or swimming. Warming up lets you break a sweat and make your treadmill walks effective.
You use your fitness agenda as quality time with your loved ones. Having someone around adds motivation and enjoyment to your treadmill routine. They can also act as your accountability police to ensure you are completing your laps! Having someone to talk to while walking can help you kill time without realizing it.
Mild health walk
A pleasant way to start is an easy 30-minute walk. Here, you’ll need to reach 50% to 60% of your maximum heart rate or an 11-12 RPE scale rating which is the average fat-burning zone. An easy walk will help your walking posture and technique. Here are the steps to an excellent walking technique
- Eyes straight ahead: Looking down can strain your upper back and neck. Keeping your sight forward will help you stay focused and prevent upper-body tension.
- Keep your body straight: Practice maintaining your body posture by standing or sitting upright. Slouching from staring at the computer will also show when you walk. Straighten your spine as if you were receiving a crown. Refrain from overarching your back or sticking your tummy out when extending your spine.
- Shoulders back and relaxed: Swing your shoulders up and down, don’t bring them to your ears to prevent upper-body tension. Doing so will let your arms swing freely since your shoulders have space to move.
- Swing your shoulders naturally: Let your arms move freely from the force of your shoulders swinging. Swing them back and forth lightly. Avoid letting them go higher than your chest or across the body.
- Light steps: Keep regular gentle steps by stepping from your heel and landing on your toe. Landing flat-footed and stepping far in front of you will impact your joints, slowing you down.
Having the correct walking technique will make your workouts easier and lessen injury. It will also speed up your progress during more challenging routines.
Treadmill hill workouts
We all know walking uphill is a pain in the neck, but it’s one of the best exercises. If your treadmill has a pre-programmed workout, you can pick that. The usual option is the steady climb, a 30-minute walking pre-set program with a level 12 incline with a speed of 3 mph. But since you’re working harder to get your calorie-burn goal, aim for 45 minutes.
Using an incline can help you put more force into walking, burning more calories. You will need to reach a maximum heart rate of 70% to 85% when exercising, known as the fat-burning zone for vigorous activities. For an RPE scale, you should feel like you were working from a 14 to 16 range, also known as moderate to hard training.
Moderate-intensity walking workout
Pairing walking with stretches and a healthy weight loss program such as modern-intensity cardio intervals (MIIT) can help you burn body fat faster, according to studies. A moderate-intensity workout is 60 minutes, but you can group these into two 30-minute walking sessions on your treadmill with a 10-minute warm-up for each.
A 10-minute easy to moderate pace warm-up allows you to sweat and increase your heart rate for the walking session! After this, increase your brisk walk speed which should increase your heart rate to 60% to 70% of your maximum heart rate. You can use your treadmill’s heart rate monitor to get your target rate.
Another way of tracking your heart rate is using an RPE scale, which does not need equipment. Pick between 6 to 20 on your treadmill speed, with 6 being fully at rest and 20 means working at maximum intensity. However, 20 may not be sustainable beyond a few seconds.
Moderate health walk
Choose between 12 to 14 on your RPE scale, and walk at an endurable but working pace challenging enough to break a sweat but not tire you. Walk at a moderate pace for 30 minutes and pair this with core exercises afterward. Pick 2 to 3 ab workouts like planks, ab curls, sit-ups, or standing ab abdominal exercises.
This workout serves as a preparation to save energy for the next more intense workout.
Speed intervals workout
Treadmills commonly have pre-set speed interval programs to use. They consist of two segments: one is where you switch from running to walking, then slow down during a longer one to catch your breath before going back to the first segment. The following goes in a cycle:
- Pick a pre-programmed interval or create your own.
- For 30 to 50 seconds, you can jog for your speed interval or do brisk walking where you are challenging yourself. Make sure you’re adding maximum effort here. Aim for 80% to 90% of your maximum heart rate or 15 to 18 on your RPE scale.
- Walk as your recovery interval. Aim for 10 to 12 on your RPE scale.
Make sure you complete a workout segment of 30 to 45 minutes total while you get 20 to 30 minutes for recovery intervals.
Distance Training
Walk on your treadmill at a comfortable pace for at least 1 hour. Some state-of-the-art treadmills have built-in screens so you can watch your favorite shows to kill time. You can also listen to a podcast to stay entertained while walking.
Make sure you are walking at an easy pace. The challenge for this workout is that you will start to feel muscle burns as the minutes pass.
Week 2
Repeat the weekly treadmill workout routine. Check out the pre-programmed workouts on your treadmill to increase your hill and speed interval day. If you haven’t been walking daily, you may need to start with shorter treadmills and increase your time.
Meet your time or calorie goals by adding 15-minute walks throughout the day as needed. To lose weight with exercise, you should control how much you eat throughout the day by ensuring you eat the correct nutrients for your body. Start a suitable diet and write a food diary to keep track.
If you challenge yourself to burn 300 calories a day through exercise and cut your calorie intake by 200 calories daily, you should have 500 calories. This should result in weight loss of about a pound per week, as long as you don’t change your activity level or nutrition in any other way. Can you lose weight walking on a treadmill? definitely. But it’s not walking alone that causes calorie burning.
Week 3
Adjust the weekly schedule to suit your lifestyle. Improve your walking posture and get in shape using these tips to walk faster to burn more calories during the same workout. As you progress, you can improve your form and lose enough weight to use more walking speed and incline to get your heart rate into the desired effort zone.
How to lose 1 pound of weight?
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Treadmill Run states that you can lose 1 pound by burning 3500 calories. To achieve this, CDC recommends moderate exercises such as brisk walking on your treadmill for 150 minutes per week, which is 2 hours or 30 minutes.
If two hours a day is overwhelming, you can separate the 150-minute goal into 30 minutes of treadmill brisk walking per weekday.
Wrap-Up
In a nutshell to answering can you lose weight walking on a treadmill, definitely! But to lose weight faster, you need to challenge your exercise intensity and increase your fitness level. The number of calories burned won’t increase unless you pair your treadmill walks with other exercises such as HIIT workouts to make you sweat.
Walking on a treadmill may seem easy, but it’s a challenge to have the patience to take your time in achieving fat loss. Building a fitness routine is easy until it’s time to commit to it. Thankfully, you can walk on a treadmill than walk outdoors to lose many calories as long as you stick to diet plans.
However, it’s equally important to have rest days just as having an exercise routine. A walk on the treadmill can burn more calories as long as you invest time and effort to keep walking!
For other interesting facts about treadmills. See my articles on how heavy are treadmills and how long do treadmills last.
I am a physician who cares about healthy living. I strive to be as healthy as I can be so that I can thrive in my own life. By sharing what I know I want to help others to live a healthy life.