If you're looking for a workout to help you lose a few pounds, your first instinct might be to hit the gym.
But racking up the recommended 150 minutes of exercise a week that way is hard, especially when you’re squeezing it in around work, kids, a social life, and – let’s be real – doomscrolling on your phone while half-watching Netflix. You’re setting yourself up to fail.
So, what’s the alternative? Well, science suggests there are surprising benefits to doing something that’s a little less arduous but fits in with your busy lifestyle. The answer: walking.
“If you walk to and from the train station and maybe take the dog for a walk, or perhaps at the weekend do a slightly longer walk, 150 minutes is not that unachievable. It really isn’t,” says physical activity expert Prof Marie Murphy from The University of Edinburgh.
Walking, as Murphy describes it, is the ‘loose change’ of exercises – every extra bit you do, just within your daily routine, adds up like coins filling a jar.
And while you might think more strenuous exercise would be called for to start shifting the extra baggage, research says otherwise. You can walk your way towards better health without having to show your sweaty face at the gym.
How effective is walking for weight loss?
Can you really lose weight just by walking? Well, plodding around the park once a week probably isn’t going to do much damage to the scales, but studies do show that regular, daily walking will help you lose weight.
Murphy’s own research includes a review of 37 trials that found that when people took part in walking programmes lasting at least eight weeks, they lost weight and body fat – while also improving their blood glucose levels (which are important in diagnosing diabetes) and blood pressure.
Weight loss boils down to energy balance: the energy you burn via activity versus the energy you consume via food. But the heavier you are, the more calories you burn by walking, explains Murphy.
“The amount of calories you burn is almost linear with your weight,” she says. “And that’s why, for me, walking is probably the best buy for public health.
"Because those who are trying to lose weight are probably a little overweight, so they’re getting a lot of energy burning.”
But what they’re also doing, she notes, is keeping the impact low, which helps avoid injury and sustain some physical activity long-term.
A more recent review of 34 exercise trials – half of which involved walking or using treadmills – found that three 30 to 60-minute sessions of aerobic exercise per week, of at least moderate intensity, were enough to reduce visceral fat. That’s the deep belly fat associated with a heightened risk of heart disease.
Across those trials, moving more than the recommended 150 minutes per week wasn’t associated with any extra fat loss, emphasising how much benefit you get simply by doing something rather than nothing.
This also rings true when it comes to the wider health benefits, such as heart health, according to Prof Jeff Horowitz, a movement scientist at the University of Michigan in the US.
“Even just getting off the couch is very potent in reducing risk for disease,” says Horowitz. “After that, it’s diminishing returns. Marathon running is great, but it’s surprisingly not much more of a benefit, in terms of many health outcomes, than just walking regularly.”
And while fitness influencers push higher-intensity activities like Hyrox (the indoor fitness competition all over your social feed) and HIIT (high-intensity interval training), remember that for those of us who don’t consider ourselves ‘exercisers’, even a brisk walk to pick up some bread and milk can raise the heart rate enough to be considered moderate intensity.
In fact, many scientific studies define ‘moderate intensity’ activity by heart rate or oxygen uptake rather than the type of exercise, meaning that while some participants might be jogging, many would be walking briskly instead.
In one 2021 review, for example, moderate to high intensity activities referred to exercise done at 50 to 80 per cent of participants’ maximum heart rate – and these activities were found to help overweight and obese people lose weight and belly fat.
Let’s not be under any illusions, though. As the ‘fiterati’ of social media are so fond of reminding us, diet is more than half the battle when it comes to weight loss – especially when considering what experts call ‘behavioural compensation’.
“Naturally, most people compensate for the energy expenditure during exercise,” says Horowitz. “So, walking a mile (1.6km) is 100 calories, but a Big Mac is a lot more (494 calories in the UK and 580 calories in the US, according to McDonalds) and you can wolf that down in three or four minutes.”
However, keeping active does play an important role in facilitating weight loss – and maintaining it.
A 2021 study showed people who successfully maintained their weight loss did more than an hour of moderate to vigorous activity most days of the week, and they were more active in the mornings and less sedentary on the weekends compared to people with obesity.
Read more:
- This simple walking hack could make you live longer, study finds
- The surprising truth behind the 10,000-step myth – and what you should aim for instead
- How to boost your metabolism: 5 simple ways to speed up fat loss
One exercise to rule them all?
Admittedly, there isn’t much research directly comparing walking to running, HIIT and other more intense exercises as part of weight loss programmes.
But by most estimations, yes, a half-hour run is going to burn more calories than the equivalent in walking – estimates suggest a 73kg (160lb) person would burn about 300 calories running for 30 minutes and roughly half that walking.
“You can get a lot of health benefit from more intense activity than lower intensity,” says Prof Dylan Thompson, co-director of the Centre for Nutrition, Exercise and Metabolism at the University of Bath.
But when it comes to energy balance and weight loss, he says, “it’s probably more about the total volume and amount – how much you accumulate over your waking time.”
According to Thompson, ‘prescribed exercise’ sessions – enrolling in some kind of structured exercise programme – are less effective than we might imagine.
In one six-month trial his team carried out, middle-aged men spending four hours a week in the gym saw only a modest increase in their energy expenditure and lost much less weight than predicted, which the researchers figured was probably due to behavioural compensation by eating.
By this logic, we might be better off sneaking some activity into our routine throughout the day – starting by simply getting up and walking around more. Plus, we wouldn’t have to jump over the mental hurdle of getting to a gym.
“There are too many barriers,” says Murphy. “The thought of joining a gym, getting into skintight sports clothes, you know, making a fool of yourself.”
By contrast, you can walk to work in your everyday clothes, while hopefully avoiding behavioural compensation when you eat normally instead of scoffing down a burger to reward yourself later.
Some researchers also suggest that doing prescribed exercise leads us to put a lid on our activity for the rest of the day – essentially crashing out after a hard workout and foregoing the normal activity that keeps us moving. That said, a recent study found little evidence that this actually happens.
Low-intensity exercise to avoid 'cortisol belly'
Another possible argument for walking instead of running is avoiding what fitness influencers refer to as ‘cortisol belly’.
Social media posts claim we should steer clear of high-intensity exercises like running, which they say expands our waistlines by raising levels of the stress hormone cortisol.
On that count, experts tend to disagree. As Dr Angela Incollingo Rodriguez, who studies cortisol responses at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Massachusetts, in the US, points out, cortisol does drive our hunger response after exercise, and storage of energy in fat, but “you can’t get rid of your cortisol – you would die.”
The confusion probably arises from the fact that more intense exercise leads to higher cortisol levels. And raised cortisol can push fat towards the belly, but only when levels remain chronically high, usually due to life stresses.
According to Incollingo Rodriguez, exercise only causes minor cortisol bumps and is actually helpful for building up an effective cortisol response.
“It lubricates that system to be able to turn on, to increase cortisol, to meet the physical demand, and then turn off,” she says.
So, we certainly shouldn’t write off harder workouts. And walking, notes Murphy, can be a great stepping stone to those.
“It is the way into something else,” she says. “So, if you like it, and you’re losing weight, it might tempt you to try something higher intensity.”
On the other hand, if walking is all you can manage, it might be the easiest way to stack up those 150 minutes.
How to max out the benefits of a good walk
Here’s how to go from a meander to a march, and get the most out of it.
1. Go hard
To really raise your heart rate and get a bigger calorie burn, try taking a heavy bag with you, diverting via a hilly route or just walking a bit faster to the shops.
A cadence (the measure of your walking or running pace) of over 100 steps per minute should be enough to reach a moderate intensity level, according to a 2018 study, and you can track your cadence using a simple step-counting app
2. Go long
The longer you walk for, the greater the energy output. You could gradually increase your total distance by parking further away from the office every week, for instance.
And perhaps take one longer walk a week – consult resources like the Long Distance Walkers Association (UK), the American Hiking Society (US) or free apps like AllTrails or Komoot for walks in your area.
3. Go back to nature
Walking in green spaces can provide added benefits for mental health. One 2024 review of 17 nature-based walking interventions found that walking in nature boosted mood, mental wellbeing and sense of optimism – and, compared to urban walking, reduced anxiety and worry.
4. Go Nordic
For the real converts, you could consider investing in some Nordic-style walking poles – research suggests Nordic walking (where you use your upper body muscles as well as your lower body to propel yourself forwards) burns more calories than regular walking.
To enjoy added social benefits, you could even join a Nordic walking group. Just be careful you don’t fall into the trap of behavioural compensation by heading to the local café afterwards...
Read more:
- Simple walking hack could boost your heart health, study claims
- New study reveals the best walking pace for a long, healthy life
- Here's how to burn more calories when walking
About our experts
Prof Marie Murphy is director of the Physical Activity for Health Research Centre at The University of Edinburgh, Scotland, and Professor of Exercise and Health at Ulster University, Northern Ireland. Her research focuses on the effect of physical activity and exercise, particularly walking, on health, and her work has contributed to the current physical activity guidelines in the US, UK and Ireland. Murphy has over 140 peer-reviewed publications.
Prof Jeff Horowitz is a professor of Movement Science and director of the Substrate Metabolism Laboratory (SML) at the University of Michigan School of Kinesiology. Horowitz has published more than 50 articles in peer-reviewed journals, including the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, Journal of Applied Physiology and The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.
Prof Dylan Thompson is Deputy Head of the Department for Health at the University of Bath, England, as well as a co-director of the Centre for Nutrition, Exercise and Metabolism (CNEM). Thompson has authored more than 150 original articles and various reviews, and has held editorial roles with several academic journals. He has also supervised more than 30 PhD and Masters students to completion.
Dr Angela Incollingo Rodriguez is an associate professor of Psychological & Cognitive Sciences and Neuroscience at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts, USA. She directs the Stigma Eating & Endocrinology Dynamics (SEED) Lab, and her work covers eating, exercise, weight, obesity, stigma, discrimination, pregnancy, maternal health and chronic pain.