Does Walking in the Morning and Evening Help You Burn Fat?

Walking twice a day helps you double the calories you burn.

It can be challenging to find enough time to exercise daily, but if your schedule affords you the opportunity to work out in the morning and evening, you're roughly doubling the number of calories you can burn in a single day. Although walking isn't the fastest way to burn calories to help you lose fat, it's a convenient exercise that doesn't require any equipment and one that can lead to fat-loss results.

Calories Burned From Walking

Doubling your daily walks can mean you'll burn a few hundred calories more than if you walked once a day. A 155-pound person who walks at 4.5 mph for 30 minutes will burn 186 calories, according to Harvard Medical School. If you take just a half-hour walk in the morning and another half-hour walk in the evening at this pace, you'll burn 372 calories per day just through walking. The faster pace you can maintain, the more calories you'll burn.

Burning Fat

Burning a pound of fat requires you to burn 3,500 calories beyond what you eat and drink. If you burn 500 excess calories every day of the week, you'll lose 1 pound of fat during that week. The calories you'll burn during your two walks will help you make significant progress toward creating your daily calorie deficit.

Considerations

The efficiency of early-morning walks in burning calories is hotly contested in the health community. A 1995 study found people burned more calories on exercise days in which they didn't eat breakfast, while a 1999 study published in "Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise" revealed that people who failed to eat before exercising tired faster and thus ended their workouts prematurely, according to a 2006 "The New York Times" article. The "Times" quotes rehabilitation medicine assistant professor Dr. David Prince as recommending that people should consume one piece of fruit to provide energy for an early-morning workout.

Walking Benefits

Regardless of when you walk, walking provides you with a number of health benefits that can significant improve your quality of life. Beyond helping you burn calories to keep a fit body, walking can help prevent a number of health issues, including cancer and heart disease; build stronger bones; improve your coordination and balance; build muscle; and improve your mental well-being. If you have joint pain, walking provides less of an impact than running.

References

• Harvard Medical School: Calories Burned in 30 Minutes for People of Three Different Weights
• Go Ask Alice: How Many Calories Does It Take to Lose One Pound?
• MayoClinic.com: Weight-Loss Goals: Set Yourself Up for Success
• Bodybuilding.com: Burn 3x More Fat With These 4 Simple Steps
• MayoClinic.com: Walking: Trim Your Waistline, Improve Your Health
• Better Health Channel: Walking for Good Health
• The New York Times: The Claim: You Burn More Fat by Exercising on an Empty Stomach