How can walking be better for fat loss than going to the gym?

I've been spending some time researching the effects of daily walks on body composition. There's some really good evidence that points to daily step count contributing to many positive health metrics, including less fat/more muscle mass. There are some studies that show walking outside of the gym increases your performance inside the gym. So let's talk about how great walking is and why.

In a day, you burn a certain number of calories, called your:

Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE)

To understand why walking is important for fat loss, you have to understand the fundamentals of where in our day we burn calories.

Now this is much more boring than watching a fitness influencer do burpees in the gym and talking about their fat loss program. But that only tells part of the story. Chances are that fitness person moves a lot throughout their day, and spends little time being sedentary at a desk.

That daily movement outside of the gym is called:

Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT) - This is walking, fidgeting and any movement other than exercise.

In the gym, you should be focusing on lifting weights to either build or maintain muscle. Focus on a performance goal like gaining strength in your squat or getting a body weight pull up, and less on the calorie burn on your watch -- it's inaccurate anyway.

To lose fat, stay in a small calorie deficit -- I taked about deficits here -- and focus on your NEAT, anywhere from 6,000 to 10,000 steps per day is a realistic goal that everyone can hit on most days. With the recent heat waves and stormy weather in the summer, you may have to get creative indoors to reach your steps, but sometimes just cleaning my house or playing with my kids will up my step count.

Remember, gym workouts are important for building muscle and strength. But if you're sitting at a desk all day for work, and mostly sedentary on most days, you're actually burning very little calories throughout the week. Upping your movement where you can outside of the gym (yes, I'm talking about the cliche advice of parking further away at the grocery store and taking the stairs instead of elevators - increased steps!) is probably more important for fat loss. You actually burn significantly more calories with your NEAT than with your Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (gym training).

Also:

Studies show when we reduce calories, we move less.

Especially women.

So, sticking to a daily step count goal can offset the reductions in your NEAT when eating in a calorie deficit to lose fat.

That's why it's more important to focus on your NEAT for fat loss and find ways to be less sedentary.

Hope this was helpful and motivating to get you moving this week. As always, reach out to me and let me know if there's anything you'd like to see me cover in my blogs.

Talk soon,
Megan