Is Walking Enough Exercise? What Happens If You Walk Every Day

I used to think exercise has to have this whole aesthetic – workout outfit, workout area, 45 minute sweat session with complicated routine pulled off on Instagram, leaving you feeling you’ve earned your food today… etc. But then “Real Life” happened.

There were some days where I did actually have energy and could push through and motivate myself to do workouts for 15 mins. But other days, just getting dressed and putting my workout clothes on was too much of an uphill battle.

I remember being frustrated with how often I felt this way but then I began thinking about what walks looked like for me.

At first, I thought, "This can’t be counted as a real workout."

The reality is most people aren’t going to get into working out if they don’t think their time doing it is worth while. Most people want to see results — maybe after trying several things (which usually fails) you’re ready to try a different approach.

But what about just walking? So many women wonder this… Is Walking Enough Exercise?

Can walking aid in weight management? Is there any room for strength training? Does 10,000 steps per day hold up as the gold standard? And if you are currently walking on a regular basis are you walking enough?

Or could you benefit from increasing the intensity? Let’s break this down so you can know where you stand in regards to fitness.

You’d need to answer questions about how much walking you’re doing and at what speed, how fit you are and whether this is part of an exercise program or just to keep fit. But yes – it’s definitely good for your aerobic activity if that’s what you want.

‘Enough’ could mean different things for different people – e.g., taking a walk every day would provide a solid base for anyone with no existing regime but there would obviously be other requirements for someone training for a sport or wanting to gain muscle mass.

Is Walking Enough Exercise?

Walkers often find this form of exercise to be ideal for staying active. In addition to being good general exercise, regular brisk walks will meet most.

Brisk walking raises heart rate and breathing sufficiently to qualify as moderate-intensity physical activity. But there isn't one universal definition of “enough.”

Are you trying to get more active? Walking every day could help you meet that goal.

Does cardio seem important to your health goals right now? You could benefit from taking brisker and longer walks.

Are you aiming at becoming stronger by building up your muscles? Just walking won’t give sufficient stimulation to all of the main muscle groups.

Are you working toward bettering your balance, mobility or other aspects of your “functional” fitness? You might want to include some specific exercises with your walks. 1

Are you interested in managing your weight? Your food choices are important — but they're only part of what's at play when it comes to health and vitality. How you sleep, how you manage your stress, how active you are each day along with all of your regular activities and workouts also come into play.

Walking Is More Than “Just Steps”

One of our greatest misfortunes is how often we reduce this concept to simply a number — 5,000, for example, or 8,000.

You’ve just run 9999 steps toward reaching your goal of unlocking health benefits from your daily activity — maybe you’re aiming for 10,000 or 12,000. Your body isn’t aware of this milestone yet, though. It might take an extra few hundred steps before your body feels those positive changes.

Your walking pace, its duration, what kind of terrain you're traversing, how frequently you do it, your general state of health, etc., will play a role here as well. 2

And while a relaxed stroll and a brisk walk are by no means physiologically identical activities — that’s why they’re considered “different kinds” of walks to begin with! — slow walking still provides many unique benefits.

But occasionally it’s also best to take walks where you will be able to keep walking. Or as I put it “sometimes, the most valuable walk is the one you are able to maintain.”

What Happens If You Walk Every Day?

Daily walking isn't a magic transformation button for you—but regular movement can create meaningful changes over time you can’t even think of.

1. Your cardiovascular system gets regular movement

Brisk walking is a great way to make your lungs and heart work out, thus helping you achieve better cardiovascular health. For people who sit throughout their day, introducing regular walking into the daily schedule raises the overall levels of physical activity considerably. 3

2. Your daily energy expenditure increases

Walking consumes energy. The quantity depend largely upon one’s size, pace and length of time engaged in the activity. 4 While walking can play a part in controlling your bodyweight, you need to avoid viewing this activity as a punishment for yourself.

Walk is no way of punishing your food consumption. Regardless if you do exercise or not you have to eat!

3. Your muscles continue working

Make sure to walk a lot. The muscles in the legs and core will be exercised, but walking is not as promising option as resistance training.

Calves, thighs, and hips contribute to every step you make. So try to make it harder to walk by walking uphill or increasing your speed.

4. Your mood may benefit

Physical movement can serve as an effective mental reset. 5 The advantage is not always “I just burned X calories.” Instead, it is:

• I stepped out of my room.
• I enjoyed some fresh air.
• I took a break from my screen.
• I had 20 minutes to myself.

And that also matters.

5. Your body gets a break from prolonged sitting

Being physically active does not require doing a big workout. Sitting for a long time with short breaks for physical activities can be an effective strategy to boost one’s activity level during the day.

This idea is especially useful for women who study, work at a desk, or spend a lot of time on their phones or computers.

Is Walking Enough for Weight Loss?

This is where the fun begins. Walking can help you in losing weight, but it does not assure weight loss simply by walking.

There are several factors determining your weight, namely: food consumption, energy usage, quality of sleep, stress levels, hormones, medication, heredity, etc.

Walking helps you expend energy as well as live a more active life, which would help you sustain a calorie deficit when coupled with the correct eating habits.

However, what I wish many women know is:

You do not have to increase the duration of your walking sessions every time you notice that your body weight stops changing.

Your initial thought should not be, “I need to walk more.”

Often, it would be more helpful to ask questions like:

• Can I improve the protein content of my meals?
• Is fiber intake enough?
• Do I feel satisfied after eating?
• Am I getting enough sleep?
• Do I spend the whole day sitting regardless of my walks?
• Am I trying to limit my calorie intake too much?
• Have I started working out strength-training?
• Does stress influence my eating behavior?
• Am I using any medicines that could explain the changes in body weight?
  Managing your body weight is definitely.

Can Walking Help With Belly Fat?

However, you shouldn’t expect that walking will help you target particular areas for weight reduction, such as losing belly fat.

In fact, "belly fat" is one of the most searched fitness concerns on the web by women.

The process of storing fats and eliminating them from the body has an unique way according to which our bodies decide about it.

But remember – doing thousands of extra steps just to get a smaller stomach does not result in targeted abdominal fat loss. Think bigger picture…

Regular walking + proper nutrition plan + strength training program + quality sleep + sustainable lifestyle = better chances for healthy body composition changes! 6

Also, don’t forget about the power of digestion on your stomach’s shape — sometimes that “bigger belly” you see from one day to the next could be due to bloating, constipation, changes in your menstrual cycle or just fluid/food volume, too.

How Much Walking Should You Do Every Day?

There is no one magic number that women must achieve in their step counts. In general, health advisories are more concerned about the quality and quantity of exercise than the specific number of daily steps taken.

To promote good health, the common recommendations for adults are to engage in at least 150 minutes of moderate intensities of aerobic activity on a weekly basis coupled with muscle-strengthening exercises on no less than two days a week.

Is 10,000 Steps Really Necessary?

Proclaiming.
Taking 10,000 steps each day isn't always right for everyone either. If your current step total is just 2,000 steps per day, then working toward an incremental increase will far outpace an immediate shift of taking up 10k steps daily.

And even if someone's consistently averaging around 10k steps per day — like mine was recently at 9400 — they shouldn't consider that anything but success!

Your health does not depend on the last 600 steps made.

Stop Making Your Step Counter Your Master

Wearable devices are beneficial.

However, they can also create extra pressure on our movements. For example, seeing "7,842 steps" on a watch and thinking that you have not achieved anything is not a good sign. Movement should enhance our lives instead of being another source of stress for our life.

I am attaching my step score from last month, not perfect but enough for me!

Do You Need Strength Training If You Walk Every Day?

This is the part where walking has a crucial limitation. While walking helps improve cardiovascular fitness and general physical activity, strength workouts help achieve different goals. But walking alone is not enough exercise in many cases.

By doing resistance exercises, you can stimulate the development and maintenance of muscles since those exercises are beneficial for bones and work performance as well. 7

For women, especially, the importance of muscle usage increases in adulthood. You don’t need any special fitness facility to start doing strength trainings.

Here are a few examples of body weight exercises:

• Squats
• Lunges
• Glute bridges
• Push ups against the wall
• Modified push-ups
• Resistance band exercises
• Step-ups

Pondering upon all the advantages of working out, you can easily come up with a plan of the whole week and make the whole fitness routine easier.

How to Make Your Daily Walk More Effective

You don't need to make walking miserable to make it more challenging.

1. Add short brisk intervals

2. Use hills when available (Alternate: Stairs)

3. Walk after meals when it fits your routine

4. Stop waiting for the perfect workout window

What If You Miss a Day?

There are no serious incidents that occur. Being fit is not lost in a day. There's no need to go back and complete a walk. Simply start from where you are ready to continue.

Having one day missing is simply a normal occurrence. The same is true for vacations, studying, busy days at work, experiencing menstrual symptoms, travelling and periods of low energy. A reliable routine can manage weeks where not everything is perfect.

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