Lately, there’s been a lot of discussion on the internet about whether or not you can walk your way to a shredded physique.
In other words, is it possible to achieve a lean, athletic, literally shredded level of physical fitness without doing any exercises other than just walking?
As it turns out, it is kind of possible, though you can really help yourself by varying things just a little bit.
Let’s talk about it.
Here’s The Thing About Walking…
Walking is a low-impact exercise that helps you to burn roughly 250 to 300 calories per hour.
Now, this is obviously going to vary with terrain, your own body weight, and the speed with which you’re walking.
But as a general rule, you can tend to count on burning 250 to 300 calories when you walk for an hour.
Another metric that people often use when calculating calorie burning for walking is the ratio of 100 calories per one mile.
Now, with that being said, here’s the thing.
Getting shredded, lean, etc. will require you to achieve a certain body fat percentage.
In other words, you want to get your body weight down to a certain point—where you really start to see those defined muscles—and this is what gives you that shredded look.
Is It Possible To Achieve This With Walking Alone?
Actually, it is.
In fact, one of our writing contributors recently started an exercise program where he lost 10 pounds in just one month doing no other physical exercise other than walking for a certain amount of time each day.
With that being said, you also really have to meticulously count calories if you’re going to try to use this method to achieve a shredded or lean body.
You can’t outwork a bad diet.
And when it comes to walking, we’re not talking about burning enough calories that you can afford to overeat.
So meticulously counting calories is a huge part of this plan.
Another thing to take into account is that walking isn’t a very fast-paced calorie-burning exercise.
In other words, if you’re only going to burn 300 calories per hour, you’re going to need to log some serious hours if you want to burn a significant number of calories.
So with that being said, this style of exercise tends to work better for people who are either in a great climate for walking, have access to a treadmill, can walk while they work, and/or have a lot of extra time on their hands.
You Can Also Help Yourself In This Endeavor By Lifting Some Weights And Building Up That Muscle Volume
Here’s the thing.
Even if you manage to get down to the proper body weight to achieve that shredded, toned look—the problem that you’re going to run into is that walking doesn’t necessarily build any muscle.
Sure, it’ll help you to really define those muscles you already have.
But if you want to make those muscles bigger, and/or you want to achieve a certain definition, then it’ll be in your best interest to either start lifting some weights or to engage in some bodyweight workouts to start building out those key muscle groups.
However, with all that being said, if you’re willing to go through all of these steps, then yes—walking is absolutely a powerful tool to use to achieve a shredded, fit physique.
