How to lose weight by walking – Using a treadmill vs going outside

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Top walking to lose weight questions:

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How do you lose weight by walking?

This is probably the most important question to ask. When it comes to losing weight and reaching your ideal goal you must understand the simple math that goes into figuring this out. Let me share with you this formula:

The weight loss formula:

The amount of calories (energy) you burn per day including all exercise activities and your body’s biological energy burning capability must exceed the amount of calories (energy) you consume in the form of food.

Check out this important article after you finish reading this one:

Benefits of cardio exercise – workouts for beginners | Make it fun

Nowadays, with the variety of heart rate monitors at your disposal, it’s not a hard thing to figure out. The part most people struggle with is the nutrition. It’s not me telling you how many calories you need to eat, it’s actually ensuring that you eat those calories. In order to do that you must understand calories.

Just about every food you consume has calories. I could get deep into what are macro and micronutrients and protein and alcohol and so on, but I want to keep it simple. All you have to do is use an app like myfitnesspal and either add or scan the foods you eat.

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Let me give you an example:

For breakfast I make myself basically my own version of cereal/oatmeal with the following ingredients. On my phone, when I click on the add food button, I get the option to search for a food or use a scanner code. I used a scanner code for all of the foods here with the exception of the banana. I grab a bowl and I begin by adding 25-30 grams of mixed nuts. I use a weight scale and I don’t care about grams or millilitres, they serve the same purpose. If I need to use ounces then I’ll use ounces. After the mixed nuts, I add two scoops of dotFit whey protein powder weighing in at 75 grams. I usually add Fat Snax cookies but I ran out and had some munk pack cookies . I scanned it and I only eat half a serving which is about 21 grams. I then add the milk normally weighing in at about 240 grams. Most of the times I go over by about 2 or 3 grams so I just have it set to 1.1 servnigs. I then add about half a banana. As you can see, this adds up to 903 calories.

If you eat another meal later on 300 grams of rice or plantains or potatoes or even bread does’t really make too much a difference, you can also mix and match, let’s say 150 grams of rice and 100 grams of potatoes, with 6 oz of chicken that will add up to 570 calories. Substitute steak and you need to add about 290 calories to this total because steak has more fats and fats carry more calories then protein. This would bring the total up to 860 for almost the same meal visually. This is why measuring and keeping track of your food is so important.

Conclusion: How do you lose weight by walking?

If you eat 1 more meal like this you will be at about 2,043 calories if you eat chicken and at about 2,623 if you consume steak. If you eat steak that’s about 600 extra calories. Guess how many calories you burn in about an hour of walking? About 400-800 depending on your sex, muscle mass, age, and intensity. If you eat chicken how I layed it out above and stick to 3 meals a day including breakfast, you will lose about 1 pound of bodyfat per week. If you eat steak, you will either gain, maintain, or very very slowly lose about 1/3 of fat per week. Assuming you don’t snack!

The question, can I lose weight by walking on a treadmill is YES but only if you follow the right nutrition plan.

Should you walk 3 miles or push for 5 miles?

Getting back to the weight loss formula. The more calories you expend vs the amount of calories you consume will yield how many calories you will lose over a period of time.

Let’s say that you have an average pace of 3.0 miles per hour. This means that you will walk 3 miles in an hour. At this pace you can expect to burn about 5 to 10 calories per minute depending on how heavy you are, your age, and your sex. If you do the math this will add up to about 300-600 calories per hour. If you walk 5 miles, at 3 miles per hour, you will complete this in one hour and 40 minutes or 100 minutes total. This will add your calories burned to about 500-1000 calories. If you were to walk every single day for 30 days, subtracting the averages, 450 calories for 3 miles and 750 for 5 miles, that equals an extra 300 calories per day by walking 5 miles. Over a week, that’s an extra 2100 calories per week. On average this is adds up to a little over half a pound of fat per EXTRA per week.

In the end, it comes down to how far can you walk and how much time you have. I suggest starting with a 2-3 mile walk if you’re a beginner and ramp that up to 5 miles or more as you get stronger and closer to your goal. My mother started walking about 30 minutes a day when she first started at 225 pounds standing 5’2. She’s down to 170 pounds and has increased her usual walk to 6.5 miles on average which takes her about 2 hours to complete. This is normal to her now. You can do it as well!

Can you lose weight by walking 10,000 steps a day?

Let’s go back to the recurring theme. Do you have the right nutrition program. 10,000 steps a day is by no means a sedentary lifestyle but it’s not 5-6 miles of walking per day either. You will have to be on point with your nutrition and understand whether or not you are consuming the right amount of calories based on how many calories you are burning. Get yourself a heart rate monitor and create your nutrition plan based on your ideal goal and your average weekly caloric expenditure.

Are treadmills the best cardio machine?

I love walking and running. Even though I do a lot of weight training I make sure that I get extra calories burned by jumping on the treadmill for an easy walk or run. If you have bad knees I’d stay away from inclines and declines and maybe if you have access to an elliptical, they are better for people with bad knees.

Is walking outside better than jumping on a treadmill?

In my personal opinion I believe that both options are great. Let me share the pros and cons of each.

Treadmill pros and cons:

Treadmills are available at any time any day anywhere. Whether it’s raining or snowing outside, if you have power you can exercise. With treadmills you can also monitor and adjust your intensity by changing speed and incline. Most treadmills nowadays come with programs that create customized workouts that include interval training, hikes, and runs through different countries and terrains. It’s very cool and you can even compete against others and keep track of your mileage. The cons are the pros of walking outside. Let’s go there.

Make sure you check out my treadmill review if you are interested in a treadmill:

Proform treadmill review – Easy Workout Guide for Overweight beginners

Pros and cons of walking outside:

The cons of walking outside are the pros of a treadmill. Sometimes if you live in a highly traffic area or the not so greatest neighborhood, going outside is not always an option. If you live in a place where it snows or rains intensely then you will have to stay indoors until the storms pass by. Sometimes, after a rainy day, it’s sometimes annoying to go outside due to all the gnats the come out and get in your face. But that’s more of a nuisance and not an excuse.

However, if you live in a nice neighborhood or have access to a beach or board walk, the scenery is always a plus. I love early morning walks when the sun is rising or at right before sundown. Additionally, getting sun is great for getting vitamin D which is a necessary micromineral with many health benefits. Make sure you always take precautions and use sunblock.

In conclusion, I will use a treadmill when I just want to have an easy walk while I watch some YouTube videos or when I want a challenging climb or hike using a customized program. On my off days I will go outside to get sun and to enjoy my neighborhood. I also pick fruits that I can access. If you can do both do both.

Walking tips and Equipment Recommendations:

  1. Wear the right shoes. If you have wide feet buy wide feet shoes. You will be surprised how much of a difference they make. My favorite shoe company in general is Alta Running Shoes.
  2. To make my walks harder and build my strength I use weighted vests. If you decide to wear a vest, start light and add about 5 pounds every 2 to 3 weeks. Your traps get very sore especially when you walk long distances.
  3. If you can stay on the road rather then the sidewalk can be beneficial as asphalt is softer then concrete.
  4. Make sure you hydrate as much as possible but be ready to go once in a while. I honestly only drink about 20-30 ounces during my walks and super hydrate when I get home.
  5. Buy yourself a hanging speaker because music absolutely helps make a walk much more delightful.

Weighted vest:

Traveling wireless bluetooth speaker

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Build your body step by step with the Perfect Body Shape Formula. First figure out, “how much should I weigh?”, and use these other sub steps included in the process:

Related steps:

Step 2, find your body fat by using this How to calculate body fat percentage | Skinfold caliper vs BMI article (this will be used to calculate current body fat mass and current lean mass).

Learn to control your calories, hunger, and making nutrition a lifestyle by learning about fasting for 96 hours, low carb diets such as ketogenic, keto for beginners meal plans, and mix that up with carbs using fat cycling.

Once your nutrition is programmed, then learn to workout. How should you be working out to get your ideal body type? How heavy? How many reps? How much rest? If you want to workout from home check out Gymming at Home – Essential Equipment to get my recommendations for tools, equipment, and workout schedule for my YouTube workouts. Make sure you check out my proform and norditrack treadmill reviews if you are interested in starting off your journey by walking or jogging the weight off. I give you tips and guidelines to get the best results.

Make sure you compliment your nutrition plan with a full supplementation guide:

Order your overall health, performance, fat burners, and protein powder from here: dotFit Customized Supplementation Program

One of the most important tools to help you on your journey are tools that will help you track your daily calories output and recovery.

These are the best fitness tracker with heart rate monitor.

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