Fitness experts reveal EXACTLY how you should walk to lose weight and get fit - and why a slower pace can bring surprising health benefits

As a nation, our feelings about walking are mixed. Some of us still harbour resentment at being hauled out as teenagers, post-Sunday lunch, to march over a windy heath by parents.

Or time poor, we drive to the gym to do ‘real’ exercise. Or we buy into the myth that walking doesn’t count unless we rack up ten thousand steps, and think ‘Why bother?’

Thankfully, huge strides have been made in understanding the impact of walking on our emotional and physical wellbeing.

The evidence is piling up - from eleven minutes of brisk walking a day lowering your risk of heart disease, stroke, and some cancers, to a slow stroll burning belly fat and Nordic Walking trimming your waist, not forgetting how rambling in nature improves your mental health.

Walking fits into everybody’s life somewhere, says Nina Barough CBE, founder and chief executive of breast cancer charity Walk the Walk. A veteran of many walking marathons, and author of Walking for Fitness: Make Every Step Count, she says, ‘Whether you fancy a meditational walk in the sunshine, or going rucking and building muscle, walking is a powerful tool.’

Here Nina and other experts explain how to maximise the magic of walking yourself fit!

Forget the health-boosting ten thousand steps myth.

A great starting point is 4-5,000 steps daily, says Nina. ‘At Walk the Walk, we call it The Mad Two - two miles a day makes a difference. ‘If I get to the end of the day and I’ve done 1.75 miles, I’ll run up and down stairs a few times.’

If you reckon you walk two miles during your daily routine, you can easily bump it up to three with a 15-minute lunchtime stroll, she says.

How to make every step count? ‘Walk with consciousness. Engage your core muscles, feel your pelvis slightly tip forward, feel your posture rise.’

The amusingly named ‘fartlek’ training is similar to interval training except more ‘spontaneous.’

An Ohio State University study revealed varying walking pace can burn up to 20 per cent more calories than maintaining a steady one.

Nina says, ‘Walk at the fastest rate you can walk for a minute, then stop and walk at a much slower recovery rate, for one, two, three, four or five minutes. Then walk fast again for a minute, then slow down.’ Start with two or three sets.

‘You’re aiming to walk for one or two minutes really fast, then at recovery pace for two minutes.’ Then switch. ‘It’s a powerful way of improving your fitness.’

Most people can manage to walk at 4mph, says Nina. It’s worth trying, as evidence suggests it can also drastically reduce your diabetes risk.

Data analysis published online in the British Journal of Sports Medicine showed that striding at a speed above 4mph was associated with a reduced type 2 diabetes risk of around 39 per cent. (Though ‘fairly brisk’ walking, 3-4mph, was associated with a 24 per cent lower risk compared with strolling at 2-3mph, linked with a 15 per cent lower risk - ‘irrespective of the time spent walking.’ Result!).

However, there’s an art to fast walking. ‘A typical walker will have their arms by their side, swinging freely, at about 3mph,’ says Nina. But to power up to 5mph, ‘It’s not your feet that steer how fast you go - it’s your arms. Swing them backward and forward - neat, powerful pumping movements. Also, by engaging your core, you automatically straighten up, your shoulders relax.’

Leaning forward doesn’t increase speed, nor does taking big strides (or having long legs). ‘Keep to your normal stride length at 4-4.5mph, so you’ve got full control over your balance and mobility.’ To go faster, take smaller steps, just like race walkers do, she says, ‘You see the weight transfer go from hip to hip really fast.’

A purposeful walk falls into the heart-rate category of ‘zone 2’ exercise. ‘It’s the intensity at which you can sustain exercise for a long time without getting overly tired,’ says Dr Chell, co-founder of healthbuddi.com.

Zone 2 is best for fat burning (it’s where 65-85 per cent of the energy used comes from fat) and cellular health. He adds, ‘It gives us new mitochondria [the ‘engine’ of every cell in our body, so more mitochondria improves cellular function], and it reduces our insulin resistance. It’s good for reversing diabetes, preventing cancer, lowering blood pressure, for doing a million things that are brilliant.’

A study from scientists at the Exercise Endocrinology Lab at the University of Michigan investigated the effects of walking speed on total and abdominal fat in healthy postmenopausal women. For 30 weeks, the participants walked 4.8km four days a week, either at 4.1mph or at 3.4mph. By week 30, the fast walkers had lost 2.75 per cent fat and the slow walkers - some of whom were overweight - lost 7.5 per cent fat. Therefore, say researchers, if you’re overweight, slow walking might be the way to go.

Walking uphill is hard work - especially for the quadriceps and calves. But experts confirm that it reduces stress on the knee joints, and you burn more calories.

Nina says, ‘If you’re walking to get fitter, and to tone muscle, walking uphill is essential.’

If you can’t get out, set your gym treadmill to an incline or hillwalking. A 2022 study, published in Physical Activity and Nutrition journal, found that women in their 20s, and 50s, walking for 10 minutes on a treadmill (flat, and at an incline) found that, regardless of age, energy expenditure and fat oxidation were higher in walking with a gradient of 6 per cent than walking on the flat. Researchers said, “on resolving obesity in women in their 50s, it can be concluded that walking on a gradient of 6 per cent… would be more effective.’

What goes up must come down - and that can be surprisingly challenging. You’re putting a strain on your shins and ankles and feet, says Nina, and testing your balance and stability. ‘Going uphill, you slightly lean into the hill and take small steps. When you come down, your sense of balance can get disorientated.’ Is it good for improving balance? ‘Definitely.’

‘Nordic Walking with specialised poles is a full body workout that you can make as vigorous or as relaxed as you like,’ says Nina.

You can amble along or push yourself hard over hill and dale. ‘You can be hopping round boulders, and leaping over things, and using the poles as leverage. You really get an aerobic workout.’

Studies on Nordic Walking, reported in The American Journal of Preventive Medicine, reveal its array of benefits - from reducing back pain, anxiety and depression, to increasing cardiorespiratory fitness.

A study of 168 pre-, peri- and post-menopausal women, found that after 12 weeks of Nordic Walking, participants had decreases in their BMI, total fat mass, LDL (low density lipoprotein – often referred to as ‘bad’ cholesterol), triglycerides (fatty acids), and waist circumference and an increase in HDL (high-density lipoproteins - AKA ‘good’ cholesterol). Another study found that Nordic Walking over the long-term leads to superior cardiorespiratory fitness than walking without poles ‘because of the higher amount of muscle mass used through additional motor activity of the upper body.’

Walking on a pebbly beach, cobbles, or uneven ground demands energy and balance.

‘You’re walking and wobbling from stone to stone, and you have to calculate every step. It’s fantastic exercise, but challenging,’ Nina says.

An Oregon Research Institute study confirmed that walking on a cobblestone mat surface - for one hour, three times a week for four months - resulted in significant reductions in blood pressure and improvements in balance and physical performance among adults, aged 60 and over - greater than the participants who did conventional walking.

Your smartphone says you’ve burned 400 calories on a two-hour walk. Hooray!

Sadly, says Dr Paul Chell, surgeon and co-author of The Diet Whisperer - The 12-Week Reset Plan, that’s not quite how it works.

Our body has a protective mechanism called ‘adaptive homeostasis.’ It doesn’t want you to lose weight (it thinks that’s a sign you’re starving). So, if you burn 400 calories on a walk, it conserves energy for 24 hours to compensate.

‘It will make you physically colder, slow your heart rate, reduce the metabolism in your organs, especially the liver, and drive your hunger hormones to get you to replace those calories,’ he says.

How can we outwit it? You need to decrease your food intake by a quarter (say) 400 calories, in addition to that two hour 400-calorie walk.

‘Ensure you’re hydrated, then do a morning walk without breakfast - that really will chew through the fat,’ he says. This is because, if you haven’t eaten since dinner, ‘overnight your liver’s glycogen [sugar stores] will have become depleted and a brisk walking pace is 65-85 per cent fat burn anyway. As you don’t have tons of easily accessible carbs in the liver at this stage, your body is forced towards accessing the fat stores.’

For personal trainer Lavina Mehta, author of The Feel Good Fix and wellness coach, a daily ‘feel good walk’ is her ‘non-negotiable.’

Also, morning light exposure helps anchor your circadian rhythm, so going for a walk before midday can help improve the quality of your sleep.

To add a fun fitness factor, Lavina suggests sprinkling in squats as ‘they work your core and all your leg muscles.’ Lunges too, ‘they’re great for glutes, lower body and core.’ Plus, she always does some press-ups against a bench, followed by tricep dips using the edge of it.

For cardiovascular fitness, add HIIT snacks. ‘Short and sharp impact exercises are great for bone health,’ says Lavina. ‘Do ten seconds of star jumps and some hopping. It gets your heart rate up and gives your walk extra oomph.’

Want to add some strength training to your walk? Rucking is walking with a weighted pack on your back, says Nina.

You can use water bottles or dumbbells wrapped in towels, inside a snug-fitting rucksack. ‘It’s cardiovascular, it’s strength-building, it’s a full-body workout. You can make it as vigorous as you want.’

If you’ve ever hauled a toddler in a child-carrier uphill, then you know exactly what rucking is about. Alternatively, try a weighted vest.

Lavina advises, ‘Start off with less than 10 per cent of your body weight. It distributes the weight more evenly, and it will improve your posture, and work your core.’

However you do it - fast, slow, uphill or on the flat - walking boosts your physical and mental health. Essentially, you can’t put a foot wrong.

• For more walking tips and advice visit walkthewalk.org, feelgoodwithlavina.com and healthbuddi.com