Weight Loss Using A Walking Pad

The modern office worker sits too much.

• We sit while driving to the office and back.

• We sit while working in front of the desk.

• We sit while eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

• We sit while watching Netflix and relaxing on the couch after an exhausting day.

For many of us, this means we are physically inactive for way more than the 8 hours working in front of the screen. Combine that with unhealthy food, and it’s no wonder that we gain weight.

For me personally, getting a walking pad was a revelation. I was able to lose 13kg or 28.5lbs in half a year.

But it’s not like you can jump on a walking pad and that’s it. So let me explain how walking and weight actually fit together.

Walking burns calories slowly

Walking is not high-intensity exercise. Running burns more in the same half hour, and so do cycling and swimming. The NHS counts brisk walking as moderate activity that goes toward the weekly total recommended for adults, and that is the useful thing about it, not the burn rate.

How much you personally burn depends on your weight and your pace, so a single figure in an article is wrong for almost everyone reading it. Put your own weight and hours into the calculator, which shows the assumptions it uses.

Walking several hours is key

The advantage of walking, though: It’s not that exhausting. Even if you’re not very fit, you probably can walk for an hour. And after some time of consistent walking, you can easily increase to two hours, four hours, or even more.

That is where the total comes from. Not intensity, hours. The calculator will show you what four hours at a slow pace looks like at your own body weight.

The only problem: Where can you find 4 or more hours to walk each day?

Hours at a desk are hours you could be walking

If you’re at your desk for 8 hours a day anyway, you can easily spend some of that time on a walking pad.

I’m personally walking most of my working day, and I rarely sit down anymore. At the beginning, that’s tough. But over time, you get used to walking these long hours.

Long hours of walking add up to a lot of calories burned, and a sustained calorie deficit is how weight comes off. Walking makes that deficit easier to reach. It does not create it on its own.

How a calorie deficit actually works

A calorie deficit means you burn more than you take in through food and drink. Half an hour of exercise does not move that much on its own, and what it burns is easy to eat back.

Hours of walking move it further. What you do with that is a choice:

• Keep eating as you do now, and the deficit is whatever the extra activity produced. Sustained over months, that is what produces weight loss.

• Eat slightly less as well, and the deficit is larger.

Watch out! Don’t fall into this trap

While long hours of walking burn lots of calories, they can also make you really hungry.

That’s the trap many people fall into: They eat more. After all, you deserve a little treat after a “workout,” right?

But that’s one of the most common mistakes why people don’t lose or even gain weight despite starting to do sports. The additional activity burns less than they add to their diet.

So as a first step, get an overview of your calorie intake. For a few days, track everything you eat and add it up. Then work out roughly what you burn and compare the two. The German Nutrition Society explains how daily energy requirement is calculated, and that is the part most people guess at.

A deficit you can hold for months matters more than a large one you cannot. A figure often quoted is around 500 kCal a day, but the right number for you depends on your body and your health, and it is worth asking a doctor before making a big change.

How to start walking at your desk

If you’re used to a very sedentary lifestyle, the first days or weeks on your walking pad can be exhausting.

My recommendations:

1. Take it easy at first, especially if you’re not fit. Walk only for 30 minutes or an hour at a time.

2. Start walking slowly, e.g., at 2 km/h or 1.25 mi/h. This is much slower than the pace you’d walk at outside. But at the desk, it may be hard to focus and be too exhausting to walk that fast at first.

3. Take breaks when you’re tired. Listen to your body: after some time, you might feel exhausted, your feet might start hurting, or your back starts aching. That’s a good sign that you need a break. Put the walking pad aside and rest in your office chair.

There’s no shame in taking it slowly. Over time, you’ll get used to it, and you’ll be able to walk for several hours or even the whole working day.

This article describes my own experience and how walking and calorie balance work in general. Results depend on the individual: your weight, your diet, your health, and how consistent you are. Nothing here is a guarantee and none of it is medical advice. If you have a health condition, or you plan a significant change to your diet or your activity, speak to a doctor first.