How to Lose Weight by Walking 2 Miles a Day

Walking is an incredible exercise because it's easy and it's free. You don't need to buy any expensive equipment or learn any new exercises. You just need to get outside, find a sidewalk and start walking 2 miles a day. You can also walk on a school track or on a nature/walking trail.

Use Google Maps or another GPS app to track your walking route. Choose a route that is 1 mile away from your home so you'll be walking 1 mile away and 1 mile back, for a total of 2 miles. Using a GPS app helps you know that you'll be walking 2 miles.

If you want to use a school track to walk on, make sure you ask a school official how many times you need to walk around the track to get to 2 miles. Most school tracks are .25 miles if you walk around it one time, but this might vary.

You can also use a treadmill for walking 2 miles a day if you prefer walking indoors or at your local gym.

You're going to need a good pair of comfortable walking shoes if you're going to be walking two miles a day. Look for a pair that provides a good cushion all around, but especially just above your heel. If there isn't enough cushion there for you, that can cause some blistering.

Take a trip to your local shoe store. Look for a pair that doesn't slip off when you're walking. If a shoe is too big or doesn't fit well, your heel will slip out of the shoe with every step. Try a few pairs on and walk around the store to get a feel for them. They should fit well — not feel too tight or too loose.

The Mayo Clinic recommends you replace your walking shoes once you've walked in them for 300 to 400 miles. Mark the date on your calendar so you don't forget to replace them.

‌Read More‌: How Much Weight Can You Lose Walking an Hour a Day?

The best part of walking is the health benefits you'll reap, including losing weight.

‌Lower BMI‌: A January 2017 study published in ‌_The International Journal of Obesity_‌ showed that people who walk more have a lower BMI. People in the study who walked more than 15,000 steps a day had a healthy BMI, which provides a decreased risk of obesity.

‌Lower Glucose, Cholesterol and Blood Pressure:‌ A study published in April 2013 in the ‌_Journal of the American Heart Association_‌ found that people who walk for exercise have a 12 percent reduced risk of type 2 diabetes, and a 7 percent reduced risk of high cholesterol and high blood pressure.

‌Lower BMI and Waist Circumference‌: A February 2017 study published in ‌_Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise_‌ found that people who had a faster walking pace benefited from a lower BMI and waist circumference. Quicken your pace for better results.

‌Read More‌: How to Lose Weight by Walking 2 Hours

‌Lose Weight‌: An August 2017 study published in ‌_The Journal of Nutrition_‌ compared two groups of people who were put on an energy-restricted diet. One group walked three hours a week, and the other did not exercise. The study found that the people who walked three hours a week had a significant boost in weight loss, shedding about 19 pounds by the end of the 12 weeks.

When your goal is to lose weight, it helps to know how many calories you burned during your exercise. How many calories you burn during your walks depends on your age, body composition, gender, walking speed and duration.

Casio, the makers of high-tech calculators, have created the Walking Calorie Counter. You can enter your age, height, weight, walking speed and duration. The Walking Calorie Calculator will tell you how many calories you burned.

For example, Stacy is a 38-year-old female who is 5 foot 3 inches and weighs 160 pounds. She wants to know how many calories she burned walking 1 hour at a 3 mph walking speed. The Walking Calorie Calculator calculates that she burned 212 calories. She can figure from this calculation that her calories burned walking 30 minutes was 106.