In this post & video I am going to answer 6 frequently asked questions on brisk walking.
1. What is brisk walking?
As per the United Kingdom’s National Health Service walking at a speed of about 3 miles or 4.8 km per hour is considered as brisk walking. Brisk walking is generally walking faster than a leisure walk. (1)
As per a research article published in British Journal of Sports medicine a minimum of 100 steps/minute is fast enough to have beneficial effects. (2)
About me
About me
Prashanth Cheruku
Hello!!! Thanks for stopping by.
I am the founder of this platform & a qualified Food Technologist. I have more than 10 years of Research & content creation experience in the field of Food Science.
I hold a Master of Technology degree in Food Process Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur.
Talk Test
You can figure out by yourself whether you are walking fast enough by a simple talk test.
While brisk walking if you can talk comfortably but cannot sing then it falls under moderate intensity level and you are good to go. While walking if you cannot say more than a few words without pausing for a breath then you may be walking too fast and it falls under vigorous intensity level. (3)
Depending on your fitness level and your goals you can choose which intensity level is right for you.
If you are just starting to exercise you must start walking slowly and take pause when you start to feel uncomfortable.
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2. Is brisk walking a good exercise?
Yes, it is.
Brisk walking is one of the most natural forms of exercise. The human body is designed to walk several kilometres a day. Our ancestors used to spend a significant amount of time walking to find food and shelter.
3. What are the benefits of brisk walking?
Brisk walking as an exercise form offers several benefits.
- It is an aerobic exercise and helps strengthen the heart muscle.
- It has minimal adverse effects as compared to most of the other types of exercises. The chance of getting injured while walking is also lesser compared to other exercises such as weight training, fitness boxing, rowing, cycling, etc.
- Walking strengthens muscles of the legs, lower trunk and also bones. (4)
- A systematic review and meta-analysis of walking groups found evidence of wide ranging health benefits such as significant reduction in blood pressure, resting heart rate, body fat, body mass index and total cholesterol.(5)
- Walking is also one of the most economical and convenient forms of physical activity to a wide range of age groups. You just need a pair of sneakers to start this activity.
4. Does brisk walking burn belly fat?
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A study done on a small number of obese women in Korea found that walking can burn belly fat. The women participated in a walking exercise at a frequency of 3 days per week with a duration of 50-70 minutes and targeted 400 calories of energy expenditure per session for 12 weeks. (6)
Another study done in Japan on obese men found that daily walking is correlated with the reduction of belly fat. (7)
In general if you choose healthy low energy natural foods with low calories and incorporate brisk walking of at least 30 minutes a day on most days of the week it can have a tremendous effect on reducing belly fat.
5. Does walking reduce fat in the arm?
Reducing the fat in a specific area of the body through exercising the muscles present in that area is popularly called as spot reduction.
Many fitness channels present various exercise techniques to reduce facial fat, fat in the arms and thighs, fat in the abdomen and hips. But, research studies report that spot reduction is a myth and doesn’t work. (8, 9, 10)
So coming back to the question does walking reduce the fat in the arm?
It may or may not depending on the situations.
For example, let us take a specific scenario.
You are consuming 2000 calories a day and burning 2400 cal in the day out of which 300 calories are burnt from brisk walking exercise. If you continue to do it for a few weeks then you will gradually lose weight and also fat along with it. This gradual fat loss will be from all areas of your body. This includes your arms, face, thighs, belly, hips , etc.
So the aim should be to burn more calories than we consume by being physically active and eating right foods in right quantities. Overall calorie deficit over a period of time reduces the our weight and body fat. Brisk walking can definitely play a good part in this process.
If we are consuming more calories than we burn whatever may be the exercise we choose we cannot reduce our weight and body fat.
6. Which is better, walking before or after a meal?
There are reports suggesting walking before a meal is better than walking after a meal. But, there is also equal support to the opposite.
I personally support walking after a mini carbohydrate rich meal. For example, you can consume two large apples along with three egg whites before you walk.
Walking after a mini meal provides the energy required to do the activity effectively. It can also reduce the post workout stress and in general burn more calories.
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