Will you lose weight walking 7 miles a day?
Tip. By creating a healthy calorie deficit, you can expect to safely lose between 4 and 8 pounds in a month. Walking 6 miles every day can help accelerate the weight-loss process and provide some added health benefits, too.
Data gathered at walking events suggests that you can probably walk 5 to 7 miles (9 to 11 kilometers) if you are a healthy person without diabetes, heart disease, or orthopedic problems. That is about two hours of walking at a steady pace.
There is no set number of miles that is considered too much (or too little) for all walkers. However, it is wise to start with shorter walks and gradually increase mileage as fitness goals are met.
There are quite a few benefits of walking 8 miles a day, such as improving the health of your heart and lungs, boosting your mood and confidence, decreasing stress, burning calories, and strengthening your muscles.
But there did seem to be an antidote: People who walked more than 15,000 steps per day—about 7 to 8 miles—or spent more than 7 hours a day standing had the lowest risk factors for heart disease compared to more sedentary types.
What counts as long-distance walking? According to the Long Distance Walkers Association, this is generally any walk that is 20 miles or more off-road.
There's no one number or formula that will tell you how much walking is too much. While some people get more than 10,000 steps per day as part of their daily job, others need to put in effort to get half that.
For those curious, 15,000 steps is equivalent to about seven miles of walking.
Miles | Relaxed | Moderate |
---|---|---|
5 miles | 2 hrs, 30 mins | 1 hr, 40 mins |
6 miles | 3 hrs | 2 hrs |
7 miles | 3 hrs, 30 mins | 2 hrs, 20 mins |
8 miles | 4 hrs | 2 hrs, 40 mins |
For example, regular brisk walking can help you: Maintain a healthy weight and lose body fat. Prevent or manage various conditions, including heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, cancer and type 2 diabetes. Improve cardiovascular fitness.
How many calories burned walking 7 miles?
Calories Burned at a Typical Walking Pace | ||
---|---|---|
Mile 5 | 266 | 731 |
Mile 6 | 319 | 877 |
Mile 7 | 372 | 1023 |
Mile 8 | 426 | 1170 |
Walking is a form of low impact, moderate intensity exercise that has a range of health benefits and few risks. As a result, the CDC recommend that most adults aim for 10,000 steps per day . For most people, this is the equivalent of about 8 kilometers, or 5 miles.

Building up to 10 miles per day is doable for most people, as long as you start with the right distance and slowly build up. The following are just a few additional tips to help you stay consistent and avoid injuries during your walking program.
The number of calories burned walking depends on your body weight, pace, and time spent on the activity, but you can burn roughly 800 to 1200 calories if walking 10 miles at a fast pace. Walking is a great way to build up your cardiovascular system and maintain heart and lung health.
Walking 6 miles a day builds your stamina, conditions your heart and lungs, and strengthens your legs so that you have a good foundation to handle other types of physical activity. As discussed, depending on how fast you walk, walking 6 miles a day will take roughly 90 minutes to two hours.
At a relaxed pace, it will take an average person about 2 hours and 20 minutes to walk 7 miles. However, if you walk at a normal pace, you can probably do it in 1 hour and 45 minutes. Of course, this will vary depending on your fitness level and how fast you walk.
In the past decade, as pedometers have proliferated in smartphone apps and wearable fitness trackers, another benchmark has entered the lexicon: Take at least 10,000 steps a day, which is about five miles of walking for most people.
Remember, it's all a simple math equation. 1 Pound weight loss per week with diet changes and walking combined = 2.5 extra miles walked per day (5280 extra steps), and 250 calories less consumed per day, for a total daily caloric deficit of 500 calories.
In a new study, which looks at activity tracker data from 78,500 people, walking at a brisk pace for about 30 minutes a day led to a reduced risk of heart disease, cancer, dementia and death, compared with walking a similar number of steps but at a slower pace.
Normal, healthy people in areas not marked by desert environments might walk as much as 5 miles without needing to take a rest, but the biggest danger for anybody who wants to walk distances as long as a 26.2 mile marathon is doing this without any water to replenish yourself.
Does a long walk count as exercise?
The short answer is yes. “Walking is just as good as any other form of exercise,” says University Hospitals pediatric sports medicine specialist Laura Goldberg, MD. “The guidelines are 150 minutes of moderate activity or 75 minutes of vigorous activity a week. It doesn't really matter how you get that.
Popular fitness trackers and pedometers encourage people to take 10,000 steps per day, and one 2016 study agrees that 10,000 steps are ideal. This works out to roughly 5 miles of walking. People interested in walking for weight loss should consistently hit at least 10,000 steps each day.
Walking 10 miles per day is an effective way to support weight loss.
"This means to lose 1 pound, you'll need to walk roughly 35 miles or 70,000 steps. Over the course of a week, this means targeting 10,000 steps a day," says Davis. At this rate, you could lose 10 pounds in 10 weeks.