You've been walking since before graduating from diapers, and humans have been walking since, well, becoming human. You have the skills, and there is no need for special equipment. So, there's no stopping you. Walk every day for a month and you will enhance your cardiovascular and respiratory fitness, and you might burn a few pounds in the process. How much weight you lose walking daily for a month depends on several factors, including how much you weigh, how long you walk, how quickly you walk and the type of terrain, or if you walk on a treadmill, the incline.
Benefits
Walking uses your biggest, strongest muscles, burning calories in the process. When you walk quickly, for more than a couple of minutes, your lungs heave and heart pumps to deliver oxygen and fuel to your muscles. This burns additional calories and enhances the strength and efficiency of your lungs and cardiopulmonary system. Walking at a moderately-intense pace of about 3 mph enhances your fitness and reduces your risk of various health conditions, including obesity, diabetes, metabolic syndrome, stroke, high blood pressure, heart disease and certain types of cancer. Walking provides mild impact-stress that can reduce your risk for osteoporosis.
Weight
The more you weigh, the more you lose when you walk. When you weigh more, your muscles have to work harder to move your mass, so they burn more calories. Walking at 3 mph for an hour, a 140-lb. person burns 220 calories, a 180-lb. person burns 283 calories and a 240-lb. person burns 377 calories, according to Bodybuilding.com. To lose 1 lb. you must burn 3,500 calories. So, walking an hour a day for 30 days, the 140-lb. person burns 1.9 lbs., the 180-lb person burns 2.4 lbs. and the 240 lb. person burns 3.2 lbs.
Walking Speed
When you walk faster, you burn more calories. A 180-lb. person walking for an hour burns 257 calories walking at 2.5 mph, 283 calories at 3 mph and 429 calories at the very brisk pace of 4 mph. Walking an hour a day for a month, this translates into a weight loss of 2.2 lbs. at 2.5 mph, 2.4 lbs. at 3 mph and 3.7 lbs. at 4 mph.
Terrain or Incline
If you happen to live and walk in a hilly area, you will burn more calories than if you walk across flat terrain. If you walk on a treadmill, you burn more calories walking on an incline. The 170-lb. person who burns 247 calories per hour walking on a level treadmill burns 409 calories when the treadmill is set at a 5-percent incline and 563 calories at a 10-percent incline. Walking an hour a day for a month, this yields a total weight loss of 2.1 lbs. on the level treadmill, 3.5 lbs. at a 10-percent incline and 4.8 lbs. using a 10-percent incline.
Diet and Duration
Depending on your weight and speed of walking, you can burn somewhere between 2 to 5 lbs. in a month of walking an hour a day. If you walk for more than an hour a day, you can lose proportionately more weight. Walking will help you lose weight only if you watch your caloric intake. A few sodas, a muffin or any of a multitude of other high-calorie temptations can undermine your weight-loss efforts.
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