Benefits Of Walking 1 Hour A Day – What Happens To Your Body When You Walk Daily?

Staying fit and robust doesn’t require you to hit the gym or practice any hardcore exercise! Making a habit of walking just one hour a day can do wonders in upgrading your overall health. Here is a list of some unimaginable benefits of walking 1 hour a day to help you enhance your health in the simplest way possible!

What Are The Benefits Of Walking Daily? – 11 Benefits Of Walking 1 Hour A Day

Once you motivate yourself to rise early, hit your nearby park and make a commitment of walking one hour each day, I can assure you that there will be no looking back. Because, once you witness the changes that happen to your health, your interest will turn into a great hobby!

Here are 11 things that happen when you step up and take the charge.

1. Your Weight Loss Dream Comes True

One of the significant and undeniably the most wanted health benefits of walking 1 hour a day is losing weight.

This is because walking burns calories and the number of calories that you burn depends on your weight. The more you weigh, the more you burn.

For example, a person whose weight is around 56 kilograms will be able to burn 240 calories if he chooses to walk 3.5 meters per hour.

Another person who weighs around 83 kilograms can burn 356 calories if he walks at the same pace.

You must, however, keep your diet in control because no matter how hard you sweat to lose weight, you would not benefit until you decrease the intake of food.

Doesn’t it sound like the easiest way to burn that extra fat and look gorgeous? Well, it is definitely easy than hitting the gym and performing those difficult workouts mentioned by your trainer.

Maintaining some strict diet rules for yourself and making time to walk at least one hour in a day is all you need to lose weight.

2. You Can Stay Away From Heart Diseases

When you walk, the blood pressure increases for a temporary period and this, in turn, increases the efficiency of your heart.

Walking also pumps more oxygen through blood to various parts of your body which in turn strengthens your overall heart health.

Studies have proven that walking can reduce the amounts of bad cholesterol (LDL) and increase the amounts of good cholesterol (HDL).

Men and women who are above 65 years of age are at a lesser risk of cardiovascular diseases when compared to others (even when they attempted to walk for just 4 hours a week).

Walking can particularly benefit the heart health of those are obese because, Considering the improvement of your cholesterol levels, blood pressure levels and better circulation of blood, walking is of a superficial advantage for strengthening heart health.

3. Walking Can Lift Your Mood

Entangled with the never-ending threads of deadlines, we undergo immense stress at workplace. Eating, sleeping, and working have become our routine and weekends are the only ones we wait for!

We need stress busters to make us feel relaxed so that we can continue to work with the same amount of energy which we have when our day begins.

In short, recharge is all we need when our energy levels are drained out. Two best ways to utilize walking for the enhancement of your mood is to start your day by walking an hour a day.

Take the stairs to reach your floor. Move around more often and take a stroll along the corridors of your workplace to uplift your mood.

Walking releases the chemicals called endorphins which can make you feel happy and relaxed. Well, savoring a piece of dark chocolate and drinking red wine also Imparts the same benefits but when walking is a total calorie burner, why choose other option!

4. Your Bone Strength Improves

It is a well-known fact that bones tend to become weak as we age. But, we can choose to preserve our bone strength by preventing the loss of bone density.

Our muscles and bones require the right kind of physical training to become strong. Neglecting this leads to the most common bone disorders like arthritis and osteoporosis.

The best and safest way to decline the loss of bone density is to walk daily. Good news is that you can avail all the other health benefits of walking 1 hour a day other than retaining your bone strength.

Walking is especially necessary and beneficial to the old and elderly because they cannot opt for other modes of exercise due to their age constraint. Elders above 65 years of age can also choose aerobics but walking is probably the best form of physical activity to reduce the risk of bone disorders.

5. Walking Benefits Your Digestive Health

You might have perhaps heard about the improvement of the digestive process when you walk post your mealtime and there is a perfectly scientific explanation to support this fact.

Walking soon after having your meals can speed up the rate at which the food moves throughout your body. The increase in the movement of food in your body is also because of the decrease in the sugar levels in the blood.

When the levels of blood sugar drop, the food that we have ingested can pass more quickly through the bloodstream. This proves that walking also benefits those suffering from diabetes.

The risk of cardiovascular diseases also decreases when you take the necessary measures to keep your blood sugar levels in control.

A slow paced walk right after your meals can improve your digestive health and result in a healthy appetite.

6. Benefits of walking for health and immunity

Our resistance towards the common infections and flu depends upon how efficient our immune system is in terms of its working. Relying on healthy foods and taking part in physical activities is the most natural and efficient way to boost our immunity.

We need abundant amounts of white blood cells in our body to keep our immune system strong. This is because white blood cells contain B lymphocytes which are known to secrete antibodies that help in fighting the micro-organisms.

Moreover, it is the lack of exercise that results in most of the chronic diseases like PCOS, diabetes and obesity.

Our lifestyle and job are the major culprits but these are inevitable. The only way to prevent the risk of such chronic diseases is to indulge yourself in any form of a physical activity that decreases the chances of hormonal fluctuations, increases your White blood cells and reduces the risk of chronic diseases.

7. Enhances Your Brain Health On The Overall

You will be surprised to know that various experiments that have been conducted to know the impact of walking on brain functioning proved that it can increase the memory, improve the cognitive functioning, release endorphins, and reduces mental fatigue.

In addition to this, walking helps in keeping the mental juices flowing so that your creative skills are enhanced. This also increases the flow of blood to your brain which keeps your brain active and alive.

Walking increases the protein called BDNF (Brain-derived neurotrophic factor) which helps in improving the memory and decreasing the risk of Alzheimer’s disease.

Studies have proved that walking increases the size of the hippocampus that is associated with increasing your long-term memory and spatial memory.

Spatial memory refers to how well a person remembers the address of one location in relation to other nearby locations.

8. A Daily Walk Is The Best Prescription For Longevity!

It is sad to know that most of them opt for anti-ageing medication for looking young and charismatic even though they can choose to make some simple lifestyle changes for looking young.

Irrespective of kind of illness, the only pill that your doctor recommends you to put in action instead of swallowing is a daily walk.

Walking boosts our immune system, reduces the risk of cardiovascular diseases and prevents the risk of chronic diseases which is a plus point to help you live longer.

Apart from this, walking is known to increase the activity of an enzyme called telomerase which can help in safeguarding the genetic material so that there is no instability in your genetic material which can otherwise affect your lifespan.

If you choose to walk for 30 minutes in the morning, you can look for other opportunities for walking such as taking stairs instead of the elevator or walking an extra mile instead of choosing public transport.

9. Boosts The Production Of Vitamin D

Morning walks are the best. Not because of the cool breeze nor the essence of fresh crispy dawn. But the magic lies in the warmth of the sunrise.

Sunshine is all we need because it is in the presence of sunlight that our body generates vitamin D. If you are looking for ways to enhance your overall health, you must prefer the rays of early morning because it is the rays of early morning that have the greatest ability to produce vitamin D.

Surprisingly, our body requires vitamin D for better absorption of calcium. A higher intake of calcium may not benefit in strengthening your bones if it is not absorbed by your body properly!

We need vitamin D not just to strengthen our bones but also to reduce the chances of depression, for a better weight loss, and to fight various diseases.

Ensure that your skin is exposed to sun rays that have emerged before 12 in the noon since the rays produced after 12 P.M are known to be dangerous and harmful because of increased Ultraviolet radiation.

10. Improves Your Productivity In The Workplace

If you have found yourself struggling to meet deadlines, it could be due to a lack of focus which you can absolutely correct by improving the functioning of your brain.

When your brain power is improved, your levels of productivity can also increase because of the improvement in the cognitive functioning and increased focus.

Your analytical skills, reasoning skills, memory and learning skills are improved which helps you function much efficiently.

For a change, you can try walking for an hour in a day, early in the morning and see the drastic changes that occur in your productivity levels.

11. Walking Can Reduce The Risk Of Breast Cancer

Cancer is, unfortunately, a genetically inherited disease but what is sadder to hear is that majority of the cases of cancer occur due to unhealthy lifestyle habits such as lack of exercise, sedentary lifestyle, poor nutrition, smoking cigarettes and consuming alcohol in excess than required!

Women especially are being prone to breast cancer because of alcohol. Women who drink around more than two drinks per week are more likely to develop breast cancer (15% high risk).

This is because alcohol can damage the cells of DNA leading to mutations. We are capable of making the desired changes in our habits so as to prevent the risk of breast cancer.

Walking for one hour a day is known to decrease the risk of breast cancer by 14%.

How Much Should You Walk A Day?

The answer to your question of how much should you walk a day depends on how many calories you are willing to burn if you are aiming for a weight loss.

On an average, walking for about half an hour in a day can help you burn around 100-300 calories. If you weigh more, you are going to burn the number of calories but you are required to put in some extra efforts to meet your weight loss goals.

Otherwise, you will be surprised to know that taking close to 10,000 steps in a day is sufficient to reap the optimum health benefits of walking 1 hour a day.

Bottom Line

Now you exactly know what are the benefits of walking daily! So, why wait? Get ready to make some amazing changes to your daily routine and see how your life changes for the good.

All you have to do is fill up your bottle with a great energy drink, get into the pair of your favourite shoes and plug in your earphones to gain all the above-mentioned benefits of walking for health and to enjoy your walking regime in style.