Is Walking Enough for Fat Loss After 40?

Nikkiey: You will burn more total calories throughout the day from general movement than you will from your workouts. Walking helps to lower your stress and helps to lower your cortisol. Think about it like this: if you're having a stressful meeting or you've had a stressful long day and you go for a 10 to 15 minute walk, that can lower your cortisol levels and help reset your mood.

Yo, you guys, what's up? Hey, everyone. Welcome back to The WarriorBabe Show with Nikkiey Stott, co-founder of WarriorBabe. On this podcast, we talk about mindset, methodologies, and tactics that will help you lose body fat, build muscle, be strong, and feel insanely confident. I am your host, Nikkiey Stott, and welcome to today's episode, episode number 238.

Today we're going to talk about what I believe to be one of the most underrated tools for fat loss, and for recovery, and for a multitude of different things for your overall health and well-being. And that is walking. Yeah.

...sweating buckets at the gym and being in a certain calorie deficit and all of those things. What if I told you guys that one of the most powerful tools for long-term fat loss and your metabolic health isn't just focusing on yet another intense workout? It's just simply moving your body more throughout the day. It literally doesn't have to be that complicated. And I think that's what the fitness industry does really, really well: they make it seem like the secret sauce to you getting the results you want with fat loss and getting the toned body of your dreams has to be this E equals MC squared type of equation. And it doesn't have to be that complicated.

So today, what I want to talk to you guys about is, one, why walking? Why is it so effective for fat loss? Then I want to talk to you about how walking compares to traditional cardio and some of the benefits of walking beyond just weight loss. And then, obviously, I'll give you some tactical takeaways, which I love to do in these episodes with you guys: how you can add more steps to your day without totally turning your routine upside down.

So if you guys are struggling with fat loss, if you're feeling run down because you're overtraining and you're just like, "Oh, I've got to get to the gym today to get another workout done this week," or maybe you're just looking for a simple way to start improving your health, then this is for you.

Okay, so let's dive into it. First, let's talk about why walking is such an effective tool for fat loss. I think most people think that fat loss comes from crushing it in the gym. It comes from doing hours and hours of cardio. It comes from eating in a calorie deficit. And while, yes, all of those things are important and they matter, workouts and nutrition 100% matter, what gets overlooked is something, and I don't know if you guys have heard of this before, maybe you have, it's definitely a term that's used very much in the fitness industry. I think you'd hear it more if you've ever worked with a trainer. It's called NEAT. I've definitely talked about this on episodes before.

That's non-exercise activity thermogenesis. What that is, is basically all the movement that you do outside of your structured exercise, your structured workout. It's you walking around your house. It's you pacing while you're on the phone. You can't see me if you're just listening to the audio, but I talk with my hands, I'm fidgeting. It's cleaning. It's taking the stairs instead of the elevator.

And what I think will blow your mind is when you think of it like this: NEAT will actually account for more calorie burn than your workouts do. Let me repeat that in a different way. You will burn more total calories throughout the day from general movement than you will from your workouts.

Put it into this perspective too: if you're only focusing on one-hour gym sessions but you're sitting the rest of the day, you are missing out on a massive opportunity when it comes to fat loss. You're missing out on this extra added tool. If you could just get up and do a walk, like a 10-minute walk, or even just stand at a desk or whatever it is, if you can add some of those things I just said into your routine every single day, that will greatly benefit you. Because if you're like, "Oh, I have to get a workout in," but then you sit for the rest of the day, I'm just saying there's so much room for you to improve on your journey if you start to incorporate more of this.

What I also want to break down with you guys is the difference between walking and traditional cardio. A lot of people think, if walking burns calories, wouldn't it be better if I was doing more intense cardio instead? Not necessarily, and this is the reason why.

One is that walking burns fat without spiking stress hormones. Think about it. What do high-intensity workouts and long cardio sessions do? They will spike your cortisol levels. They will spike your stress hormone. And when cortisol is constantly elevated, as we talked about in the last episode, which I would highly recommend you go and listen to, because I broke down how you could be doing everything right. You could be crushing your workouts, crushing your nutrition, crushing your sleep, but you're still feeling stuck. And that could be because you're in a chronic state of stress, which a lot of us are from our day-to-day responsibilities, and then X, Y and Z that gets added to it. So definitely go check that out. As we learned in that episode, if you listened to it, high-intensity exercise and things like this will continue to add more stress to your body, and there's a multitude of other things that are increasing your cortisol.

But anyway, when cortisol is constantly elevated, it will make fat loss harder, especially around your midsection. Walking, on the other hand, burns calories and encourages fat loss without overloading your body with stress. So think about it like that: walking will burn fat without spiking your stress hormone.

That's why I would recommend, if you're just getting into fitness and you're like, "I'm looking for some sign right now that's going to make it super simple to just start doing something," this is your sign. Walk more. Go walk for 10 to 15 minutes today, then tomorrow, then the next day, and just see that more NEAT movement throughout your day is going to start to facilitate fat loss.

Another thing, on top of walking burning fat without spiking your stress hormones, is that walking will help preserve muscle while you are in a deficit. One of the biggest mistakes I see people make when they're trying to lose fat is they're overdoing cardio. They're constantly running miles. They're constantly doing the StairMaster. They're on the elliptical. They're prioritizing it.

I did an episode on this a couple of weeks ago, which was so good, one of my favorite ones I've recorded, about how 97% of society, and I saw this on Instagram, thinks that it's cardio, workouts and then nutrition, when it's the exact opposite. It's nutrition, workouts, cardio, and cardio should just be a tool in terms of fat loss. But so many people think, "If I want to lose fat, I need to overdo my cardio." And along the way, what happens when you're overdoing your cardio while you're in a deficit is you're losing muscle.

Think of it like this: muscle equals a higher metabolism. More muscle means that you burn more calories even while you're at rest. Walking allows you to stay active and burn fat without breaking down muscle.

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The majority of the time when I'm working or have worked with clients in the past, and I know some of our WarriorBabe coaches do this depending on the individual they're working with, a woman will be in a calorie deficit to help facilitate fat loss. But depending on the individual, you'll most likely see at the beginning of her journey that we're just focusing on getting eight to 10K steps a day, depending on where she's at with her steps. I'm going to talk about that a little bit. But it doesn't have to be like, you need to do cardio five days a week on top of your training. You can just do your training and then focus on getting X amount of steps in the day.

One other thing is that walking is so sustainable. You can do it every single day. If you're anything like me, let's be real: nobody wants to do HIIT five times a week forever, right? It's kind of like keto. Nobody wants to eliminate carbs for the rest of their life, right? So in that regard, macros are sustainable, and in this regard, walking is sustainable. You don't have to do HIIT five times a week, but walking you can do daily without feeling exhausted or burnt out. And that's the key to fat loss: sustainability.

With every single strategy that you use, when it comes to strength training, nutrition, sleep, cardio, it should always be a question you ask yourself, whether you're joining us at WarriorBabe or another program: is this going to be sustainable? And just as a little addition to the topic we're on, why does it need to be sustainable? Because it's something you can do long term. I want to rewrite the whole diet narrative and everything in the fitness space of "get this in 30 days, 60 days," which still happens, or all of these GLP-1, whatever, pill injections. It boggles my mind. Is that sustainable? No. So that should always be the question you're asking yourself.

Fat loss is great, right? But walking does so much more for the body than just burning calories. Walking helps to lower your stress and helps to lower your cortisol. Think about it like this: if you're having a stressful meeting or you've had a stressful long day and you go for a 10 to 15 minute walk, that can lower your cortisol levels and help reset your mood.

Once it gets warmer here, at least in Philly, it's like, cool. Last summer, I don't know if you guys remember, if you found me on Instagram, I would get out with Maverick every morning and knock out like 8,000 steps first thing in the morning. I love doing that because I'm outside, which is 1000% better. And research shows that walking in nature can reduce your anxiety and improve your mental health by a long shot.

On top of lowering stress and cortisol, it improves your digestion. I know this was being talked about a couple of months ago, but basically, whenever you have a big meal, it can spike your blood sugar, and at the same time it can make you feel bloated and sluggish. Have you ever noticed that after a big meal, if you go out for a walk, you don't feel as bloated or sluggish after a 30-minute walk? That's because it helps stimulate your digestion and helps reduce bloating. So, pro tip: a 10 to 15 minute walk after a big meal will help stabilize your blood sugar and help prevent any type of energy crash. If you're feeling sluggish, I'd just recommend getting out there for a 10, 15 or 30 minute walk.

And outside of just fat loss, walking also improves your sleep. It shows that people who walk more and get X amount of steps in a day sleep better, especially if they're walking outside and getting natural sunlight during the day. If you start your day with natural sunlight and end your day with natural sunlight, maybe doing a walk in the morning and a walk at night, that can dramatically improve your sleep. So if you struggle with falling asleep or you wake up groggy, get more steps in earlier in the day, or just in your day in general.

Okay. You guys know I love doing tactical takeaways that you can walk away from an episode with and start implementing into your life immediately. One of those I want you to do is set a step goal. If you're currently at 3,000 steps per day, please do not jump to 10,000 steps. Just start by adding an additional 1,000 or 2,000 steps per week. You don't have to do it per day. Just let it tally up at the end of the week. Maybe you were hitting three times seven, which is 21,000 steps a week, so maybe by the end of the week you're hitting 23,000 or 24,000. Or if you feel like you can do it, add a thousand to your day. Instead of 3,000, do 4,000 or 5,000.

For most people, it doesn't have to be 10,000 steps either. Anywhere from 8,000 to 12,000 steps per day is the sweet spot for improving your overall health and for fat loss.

One way you can get more steps in your day is to get out there for a morning walk and take short walks throughout your day. Do a 10 to 15 minute walk before starting your day. Do a quick 10-minute walk after your lunch or your dinner because, as we just talked about, that improves your digestion and stabilizes your blood sugar. And then a wind-down walk, which helps lower your cortisol and improve your sleep.

This is something I do all the time: walking while I do other things. If I'm ever on the phone with friends or family, you'll find me pacing around my island in my kitchen. When I'm taking phone calls, I'm walking or pacing.

Or, and I love this one, park further away when you're going to Target or Whole Foods, food shopping, running errands, whatever you're doing, because you're naturally getting in more steps. Even if it's cold, you're going to get warm in 30 seconds once you get inside.

And if you work at a desk, I have a walking pad. I don't know the brand off the top of my head; I think it's a Renfo, that sounds about right. Sometimes I'll just pull it out, stick it underneath my desk, put my desk up because it's a standing desk too, and just start walking. So that's another recommendation.

Or use walking as a way to spend quality time with people. Go for a walk with a friend instead of meeting for coffee. And granted, I totally hear anyone in the cold for whom that's the last thing y'all want to do right now. I feel you. I totally understand that it's miserable outside. But once it does warm up, just keep this in the back of your head: instead of meeting a friend for coffee, let's shift to the season of walking outside.

All in all, guys, what I've shared with you today is that walking is the easiest, the most effective and the most sustainable tool for fat loss and for improving overall health. And again, if some of you are thinking, "Oh, I need another workout, or I need to do more cardio, or I need to up my training to be more intense, or I need to sweat buckets at the gym," you don't need to do that. You just need to move more throughout the day.

If you're feeling stuck, if you're feeling like your progress isn't where you want it to be, you're constantly stressed out, and you're unsure how to burn more calories without adding more to your workouts, without increasing the intensity or adding another day, just start walking. There's a multitude of different ways you can accomplish fat loss. And as I said earlier, nutrition and workouts absolutely matter. But fat loss isn't always about doing more in the gym. It's about moving more throughout your day. And walking is something you can do daily, for life.

As I like to do here and there in these episodes, I'm going to challenge you guys. Challenge yourself this week: set a step goal, take a 10-minute walk after your meals, and swap one of your cardio sessions for a long walk. If the weather's starting to get nicer, at least here in Philly, can you get outside to do that? And I promise you, when you start prioritizing moving more throughout the day and having more daily movement, and not just relying on your one-hour gym session and sitting the rest of the day, you will feel a difference.

All right, guys, if this resonated with you, I just ask that you share it with a friend who needs to hear it too. And like always, if you need more help, if you're unsure how to take your fitness to the next level, check out WarriorBabe. Go to warriorbabe.com.

All right, my friends, I hope you enjoyed this episode. I hope you had some takeaways and some light bulbs go off. Until next time, my friends, keep crushing it and get those steps in.

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