How Walking Helps You Burn Calories
It’s all in the Hips
We all know that Whole Body Vibration Machines and Saunas can help you burn calories, particularly if you’re immobile and are not able to walk or run. For those of us that are still able to, however, it turns out that walking has more of a profound effect on our hips rather than running, which is targeted more to the ankles. Hips produce more power when we walk, “speed walking” excluded. The hips provide 44 percent of the power when walking at a pace of 2 meters a second, with ankles providing just 39 percent. This is why walking is more effective than running for people trying to lose weight.
Average Calorie Consumption and Burn for Men and Women
There are other things to consider when burning calories. For instance, let’s consider the below chart, courtesy of About.com:
Calories Burned per Mile by Walking
| Speed/Pounds | 100 lb | 120 lb | 140 lb | 160 lb | 180 lb | 200 lb | 220 lb | 250 lb | 275 lb | 300 lb |
| 2.0mph | 57 | 68 | 80 | 91 | 102 | 114 | 125 | 142 | 156 | 170 |
| 2.5mph | 55 | 65 | 76 | 87 | 98 | 109 | 120 | 136 | 150 | 164 |
| 3.0mph | 53 | 64 | 74 | 85 | 95 | 106 | 117 | 133 | 146 | 159 |
| 3.5mph | 52 | 62 | 73 | 83 | 94 | 104 | 114 | 130 | 143 | 156 |
| 4.0mph | 57 | 68 | 80 | 91 | 102 | 114 | 125 | 142 | 156 | 170 |
| 4.5mph | 64 | 76 | 89 | 102 | 115 | 127 | 140 | 159 | 175 | 191 |
| 5.0mph | 73 | 87 | 102 | 116 | 131 | 145 | 160 | 182 | 200 | 218 |
Using the chart above, you can discern how much and how fast you’ll have to walk for optimial exercise. It’s important to note that a pound of fat equals 3500 calories. That means if your goal is to lose 1 pound a week, you’re going to have to do enough walking to burn 3500 more calories than you eat that week. For example, in 2010, the average American adult woman reported consuming 1,785 calories per day, while adult American men ate 2,640 calories per day. That means women would have to burn 15,995 calories a week and men would have to burn 21,980 in order to lose a pound.
If you eat fewer calories than the average American, you can adjust these numbers based on your own per-week calorie intake.Of course, you’ll want to consume a healthy amount and type of calories for your age, gender, and height. This calculator can help you figure out how much you should consume per day based on if you’d like to gain or lose weight.
