What happens if I walk 5 miles a day?
Sarah Smith
Published Jan 10, 2026
Benefits of Walking 5 Miles a Day
What does walking 5 miles a day do for your body?
Walking can help protect the joints, including your knees and hips. That's because it helps lubricate and strengthen the muscles that support the joints. Walking may also provide benefits for people living with arthritis, such as reducing pain. And walking 5 to 6 miles a week may also help prevent arthritis.
Is walking 5 miles a day enough exercise?
Why? It's simple—the faster the pace, the greater your heart rate, and the more calories you can burn covering the same distance. The sources that suggest you can average a weight loss of a pound a week from walking typically assume you walk at the pace necessary to cover the estimated 5-mile distance.
Is walking 5 miles a day considered active?
Sedentary: Less than 5,000 steps daily. Low active: About 5,000 to 7,499 steps daily. Somewhat active: About 7,500 to 9,999 steps daily. Active: More than 10,000 steps daily.
Is a 5 mile walk healthy?
Benefits of Walking 5 Miles a Day
Walking, especially at a faster pace, can improve your heart health and decrease your risk for a cardiovascular event, according to Harvard Health Publishing. This includes improving your blood pressure and cholesterol levels and decreasing the risk for diabetes and obesity.
40 related questions foundHow long will a 5 mile walk take?
Most people walk at a fast pace of approximately 3.5-mile an hour, which requires approximately 17 minutes each mile or 85 minutes for a 5-mile.
Will walking 5 miles a day tone legs?
Brisk walking is also considered a good cardio exercise. According to The Stroke Association, a brisk 30-minute walk daily helps in controlling high blood pressure and in reducing the chances of stroke by 27 per cent. More importantly, brisk walking can help you tone your legs and reduce thigh fat.
How many minutes is 5 miles?
How long 5 miles is in minutes driving will depend on your speed and other factors, but you should expect between 4 to 12 minutes. The exact drive time will vary depending on: Whether you're on the highway or in the city. Traffic and potential construction.
Is walking 6 miles a day too much?
Walking 6 miles every day will help increase your calorie burn and provide an array of health benefits, too. For most of us, walking 6 miles every day is no small feat. This distance is not only challenging for your body but will also eat up quite a bit of time.
Does walking reduce belly fat?
Walking might not be the most strenuous form of exercise, but it is an effective way to get in shape and burn fat. While you can't spot-reduce fat, walking can help reduce overall fat (including belly fat), which, despite being one of the most dangerous types of fat, is also one of the easiest to lose.
Is it better to walk faster or longer?
Researchers found that obese people who walk at a slower pace burn more calories than when they walk at their normal pace. In addition, walking at a slower, 2-mile-per-hour pace reduces the stress on their knee joints by up to 25% compared with walking at a brisk 3-mile-per-hour pace.
How long does it take to walk 5 miles at a slow pace?
However, on average, it takes around 1 hour and 40 minutes to walk 5 miles. Again, this can change depending on your walking pace. According to The British Heart Foundation average walking speed is around 3 miles per hour or 20 minutes per mile (12 minutes per kilometer).
Is a 4 mile walk good?
Walking 4 miles a day is a great way to burn calories and lose weight, but it's important that you take the necessary precautions to avoid potential injuries. Make sure to add interval training, strength training, and plenty of rest to your program in order to see the best results.
Is walking 4 miles a day too much?
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.
Is walking 2 hours a day too much?
Walking is a great way to lose weight. If you want to lose weight, you can begin a walking routine. Although jogging and running may burn more calories in short periods of time, walking for two hours a day can help increase the number of calories burned each day.
What is a good time for 5 miles?
But the average time to run 5 miles is 50 minutes – that's 10 minutes per mile. If you're just starting out as a new runner, running 5 miles might take you an hour – or more. If your mile time is longer than 10 minutes, you may want to consider starting out with running 3 miles a day.
What is the average steps in a mile?
2,000 steps
An average person has a stride length of approximately 2.1 to 2.5 feet. That means that it takes over 2,000 steps to walk one mile and 10,000 steps would be almost 5 miles. A sedentary person may only average 1,000 to 3,000 steps a day. For these people adding steps has many health benefits.
Is a 5 mile run good?
Running times are personal and it's better to aim for continuous improvement. For some people running 5 miles in 60 minutes is a massive achievement. For other runners anything more than 30 minutes is slow. As a rough guide, most regular runners will manage 5 miles in less than 45 minutes.
Can walking slim thighs?
Slimming your thighs with fitness walking
By walking regularly, it's as simple as that! It's true, this sport works out the front and back thigh muscles. It's the ideal exercise for slimming your legs. Walking will gradually firm up your thighs and glutes.
Can walking change your body shape?
Fyfe agrees that walking alone is not enough to transform your body shape. “Walking may improve your aerobic fitness and reduce body fat, but will do little to improve your strength and muscle mass,” he says.
How long does it take to see results from walking?
Significant weight loss and muscle gains will take approximately eight weeks to see, however, even though you're not seeing muscle definition, the benefits going on in your body and mind are considerable. “Your clothes will fit better, your posture will be better and you'll walk taller,” Sharp says.
How many calories do you burn on a 5 mile walk?
Walking 5 miles a day, the average person will burn 350 to 600 calories. Walking 5 miles a day for 5 days a week will burn an extra 1,750 to 3,000 calories.
Does walking tone your legs and bum?
Regular ol' walking does work your glutes (along with your hamstrings, quads, calves, and core), but certain tweaks to your form or technique can give your glutes muscles some extra love.
How many miles should I walk a day?
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.
Does walking tone your butt?
Walking is a great low-impact exercise if you're looking to tone your body and burn a few calories whilst you're at it. If you truly love walking or need a low-impact form of cardio (for example, due to an injury) you can definitely still use walking to boost your glutes.
