Have you ever wondered if walking on a treadmill will lead to burning belly fat?
Walking on a treadmill is an excellent cardio workout that helps burn extra calories during your day. A moderately paced treadmill walk of 30 minutes alone can easily burn up to 150 calories for someone who weighs 130 pounds.
Treadmill walks will engage your leg muscles and gently workout your thighs and calves while burning calories. If you are actively engaging in walking on a treadmill then we encourage you to continue and keep burning those calories every day.
Walking burns fat, promotes weight loss and reduces your belly fat overtime. If you add a healthy calorie-deficit diet and some improved walking techniques, you can easily make your way to a flat belly from the overall weight loss.
Will Walking on a Treadmill Burn Belly Fat?
Yes. Walking on a treadmill will burn belly fat but you cannot expect to lose weight and burn belly fat from treadmill walks alone. If you are not eating healthy and not walking regularly with the right techniques, then you will not lose weight or belly fat.
To understand how you lose weight and belly fat from walking, you need to first understand what belly fat is.
What Is Belly Fat?
Belly fat is self-explanatory, in that it is fat on your belly. It covers your stomach area and is usually unpleasant and uncomfortable for most people. It consists of 2 main types of fat, including:
- Subcutaneous Fat
This is the layer of fat directly underneath your skin, you can feel it when you pinch or grab your belly. This visible fat is not always harmful to your health because it stores the much-needed calories your body burns when you are running low. Although, it is a sign of bad health. - Visceral Fat
Visceral fat is what surrounds your internal organs, you cannot visibly see or feel it by touching your body. This fat is the dangerous kind and it actively releases hormones and compounds that promote several harmful, disease-related processes in your body.
You may think that losing the visible subcutaneous fat is more important and concerning, when in fact, it is the invisible visceral fat that is more threatening and needs to go immediately for a healthy body. The good news is that you can burn both when you lose weight from walking on a treadmill.
How to Lose Belly Fat by Walking on a Treadmill?
If you want to lose belly fat from walking on a treadmill, you will need a combination of diet and walking techniques that promote burning belly fat. It is important to note that in order to lose belly fat, you will need to lose weight. There is no other way to lose belly fat and you cannot target belly fat or lose it without overall weight loss.
There are 2 main factors that determine fat burning and weight loss from treadmill walks, these are:
- Length
The length of your walk significantly impacts how many calories you burn which will affect your weight loss and belly fat. The longer you walk, the more fat you will burn. This includes stored fat like the one on your belly.
Your body initially burns sugar for a quick energy release during exercises like walking, it is only after around 20 minutes of moderately paced walking that it starts to burn stored fat. This stored fat is what you want to burn in order to lose belly fat.
- Speed and Intensity
The speed and intensity of your treadmill walk determines the effectiveness of your walk and how much fat you burn. This is because speed and intensity directly affect your heart rate, which needs to be at an increased level for optimal fat burning during walking. It also affects your breathing which is good for a number of things including your respiratory system and fat burning.
Let’s discuss the treadmill walking techniques and calorie-deficit diet that will help you lose weight and burn belly fat in an improved and more effective way.
Increase Time
As a beginner, you will want to first get in the habit of regular walking. If you start your first week of walking on a treadmill with intense 30-400minute walks, you will probably lose interest soon and become demotivated to continue walking regularly.
You want to start with 15-minute daily treadmill walks to create a habit and then gradually add 5 minutes to each treadmill walking session every week. You can continue to add 5 minutes every week until you reach a time that reflects healthy weight loss in your body.
Improve Posture
Whether you are walking on your treadmill as a beginner or a veteran, you should always have good posture. This will improve the effectiveness of your treadmill walks. Walk like a marching soldier, extend and swing your arms and take long strides as though walking with intent.
Be sure to keep your back straight and your head facing straight ahead.
Increase Speed
When you are walking on a treadmill, you will typically be walking at brisk speed. This is a healthy habit yet it will not get you the results you desire. You want to walk at the upper end of moderate walking pace.
Gradually increase your walking speed every week and keep challenging yourself. You should sweat during your walks but do not go overboard – a good measure is that you should be able to talk normally during your walk even while sweating and deep breathing.
Integrate Intervals
Adding or integrating intervals of increased speed and intensity during your treadmill walks will promote better fat burning and weight loss. Overtime, this will help you lose weight and belly fat better than anything else. Add a 2-3-minute interval of faster and more intense walking every 5 minutes for the ultimate fat burning treadmill walk.
Calorie-Deficit Diet
No amount of walking will help you lose weight or belly fat if you are not eating a healthy calorie-deficit diet. You want to lose more calories every day than you eat, a daily 500 calorie-deficit is perfect for a healthy 1 pound weight loss per week.
You can supplement this weight loss with your treadmill walks. If you lose 200 calories from your daily treadmill walk, then you only need to cut 300 calories from your diet.
Conclusion
Regularly walking on a treadmill is only the start to losing your belly fat and you need to incorporate the mentioned techniques and calorie-deficit diet to see actual results. You will certainly see results within the first two months when you lose weight of around 4-8 pounds.
If you maintain this trajectory and gradually increase the length and speed of your treadmill walks and integrate intervals, you will be well on your way to losing weight and your unwanted belly fat.
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