Walking 1 Hour a Day Can Significantly Enhance Heart Health, Weight Loss and More: Experts' Tips

While the health benefits of walking are widely understood, a few questions come to mind when we think about how to get the most out of our walks. Is there an ideal speed? How big should our strides be? Is mileage or length of time more important? How can we burn more calories on a walk? Should we include a variety of terrains? And the list goes on because walking is such a subject-specific exercise.  

It can be overwhelming to think about all the diverse ways you can amp up your walking routine, so let’s start small. If you can gradually work your way up to walking an hour a day as part of an overall health and wellness routine including a nutritious diet, you can see incredible physical and mental benefits. Here, our experts explain how you can take full advantage of incorporating walking into your daily routine , plus how to build up the stamina to do so.  

The benefits of walking an hour a day 

“Walking for one hour each day is a great goal to have as you try to improve your fitness and overall health,” says Thomas Pontinen, MD, Co-Founder and Physician at Midwest Anesthesia and Pain Specialists (MAPS). “The benefits of walking are well established, but we are still seeing new research come out showing more benefits of this accessible activity. Walking helps our body maintain effective basic functions. Moderate exercise, which would include brisk walking for an hour, counts as cardiovascular exercise, helping your heart stay strong and healthy.”  

Walking raises your heart rate and circulates blood throughout your entire body, Dr. Pontinen explains. Individuals who walk are less likely to get sick or experience musculoskeletal injuries, he adds, and to be at risk for heart disease and early death. In addition to boosting heart strength, he explains, walking helps our immune system function optimally while also keeping abdominal and leg muscles strong and capable of moving our weight around.  

More specifically, walking nine to 10 thousand steps a day decreases the risk of heart disease, helps to maintain muscular endurance and a stable metabolism, explains April Gatlin, ACE, CPT, Master Coach at STRIDE Fitness. Sixty minutes of walking is a general period where 9,000-10,000 steps can be achieved, she says.  

“I think that an hour, while it may seem arbitrary, is a great amount of time to walk because it’s going to raise your heart rate to a level that’s beneficial and stimulating to the body, and keep it there,” he says. “This extended session of walking will also stimulate the cells in your body to consume more calories, including body fat calories and stimulate muscle growth.”  

Indeed, walking for 60 minutes reaches the aerobic threshold, where a decent calorie burn is likely with the fat-burning benefits of a moderate-intensity workout, adds  Jennie Stanford, MD, Obesity Medicine Physician and medical contributor for Drugwatch. This length of a walk, when done at a moderate pace, she says, will help promote overall fitness and cardiovascular endurance. 

While you can of course break up your walks, there are some perks to singular, longer sessions on a regular basis, Dr. Pontinen notes. This is because longer sessions challenge the body more, allowing it to tap into certain physiological responses that make it stronger. These benefits will also be experienced by someone who is only walking for 30 minutes if they’re not used to walking.  

“It always depends on what is challenging to the body,” he says. “An individual who never walks will have a completely different experience from someone who always walks, so the time spent walking will need to balance your goals with your current fitness.” 

How to work your way toward walking one hour a day

1. Assess your baseline

Start by taking a couple of weekdays and at least one weekend day and track either your steps or your time spent walking, suggests Milica McDowell, DPT, Certified Exercise Physiologist, VP of Operations at Gait Happens. Use this as your starting point. 

2. Focus on the number of steps you take

You can break up your hour of walking into shorter, more manageable mini-walks and aim for an hour a day, offers Dr. McDowell. Walks as short as 10 minutes can count toward your hour, so approach this goal with a cumulative mindset. For most women, 2500 steps is approximately a mile, she says. This will typically take around 15-20 minutes to complete. 

3. Build progressively

“As with any exercise routine, start small!” says Gatlin. “Start with a 10–15-minute walk for one to two weeks, then increase to 20-25 for the next couple of weeks, then continue to increase until you are at a full hour.”  

If your goal is to get up to 60 minutes of walking a day, experts typically recommend no more than a 10 percent increase per week to reduce your risk of injury or soreness, says Dr. McDowell.  

Read on for more ways to boost your walking routine! 

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This content is not a substitute for professional medical advice or diagnosis. Always consult your physician before pursuing any treatment plan.