A 19th-century philosopher, Henry David Thoreau, once said, “An early morning walk is a blessing for the whole day”.

This couldn’t be much truer.

Walking is the simplest exercise with the most extraordinary benefits. You have to walk actively and proudly every day, while you can. A daily dose of brisk walking can strengthen your bones, tone your muscles, help you lose weight, prevent heart disease and manage hypertension. The decision and commitment to walking every day teach us perseverance and also brings peace to mind. Research and studies have shown that walking can improve creative and cognitive abilities by at least 60%.

Make walking a daily habit.

Walking is the most affordable and flexible exercise for losing weight. Begin your weight loss journey with walking. One pound at a time. One step at a time.

The more actively and longer you walk, the more calories you will burn. Approximately, 30 minutes of brisk walking can help you lose around 150 calories at a time. Walking is a very sustainable exercise. You can do it regularly because it is that simple. You can walk around in your neighbourhood, walk on a treadmill or even walk around your room or home. But a key takeaway is that if you want to lose weight effectively by walking then you have to walk very briskly. A normal walking pace is not going to manifest weight loss any time soon! Regular physical activity will definitely make the fat reservoirs in the body burn.

A highly recommended strategy, when it comes to exercising, is, to begin with, brisk walking and then progress to other intensive workouts like running or gymming. How to know that you are walking briskly? By measuring the number of steps taken per minute. There are plenty of mobile applications that can help you keep track of the number of steps you have taken. More the steps, the more the fat burn effect. 

Now, the question comes to how long should you walk. Can you measure it by the total number of steps taken? Are 10,000 steps a day good enough? Is 10,000 the magic number?

10,000 steps measure the same as walking for about 8 kilometers, which is definitely a good achievement 

in physical activity per day. Although 10000 is the set baseline, you can work out your own baseline by experimenting with how briskly you walk and for how long you can walk. And starting with this baseline you can gradually increase it over time. Take a few hundred steps more than you normally can. But do not over-exert yourself. Know when to stop pushing yourself in exercise and call it a day. 10,000 steps is a recommendation because it can burn 1000 – 1200 calories in a day. No matter at which baseline you start, try to push it to 10,000 over time. Once you reach that milestone, keep it up!

In conclusion, brisk walking helps you lose weight. Taking 10,000 or more brisk steps a day helps you lose weight effectively faster.