Walking 6 Miles A Day: FAQs

[spoiler title=’Click for video transcript’ style=’default’ collapse_link=’true’] let’s talk about all the frequently asked questions I get about walking six miles every day I almost feel silly making this video because I feel like walking is self-explanatory however people have a lot of questions so I thought I’ll just make a video and hopefully I’ll answer all the questions that people tend to have the first and most popular question I get asked is how long does it take to walk six miles and my answer is really about two hours I mean you know it really depends on how fast you’re walking but for me I like to go at a slow and steady pace so I walk about three miles per hour six miles two hours people also ask a lot about the pace like how fast are you walking and you know when I tell them how slow I’m walking they’re like well couldn’t you burn more calories if you walked faster I probably I mean and certainly would burn more calories every time I walked if I walked faster however there is something to be said for enjoying yourself and to me that’s the most important thing one one thing that I read or heard about one time that really shifted my kind of paradigm on all that was an article by Derek Sivers but basically he for a long time was going all out on this bike ride you know it took him 43 minutes every time to go on this bike ride and then one day he just said you know I’m just gonna take it slow and see how it goes and so he took it very slow and at the end of it it only took him two minutes more and he really enjoyed the ride so I’m all about wanting to enjoy the ride and ultimately you know the calorie burn doesn’t really matter if you can’t stick with it and I have found I just don’t like walking fast like if I’m gonna be out there huffing and puffing I’m just not gonna stick with it so I just I want to be consistent and said that’s what I do how big is your house in my initial video about walking I was living in a traditional house but now I’m a full-time RVer so my answer has changed but to answer the original question when I was house walking I was doing it in houses between generally speaking even within those houses I was walking usually in my master bedroom which was generally about to prefer to do it I just walk back and forth in that one room however now I’m a full-time RVer so I have to do things a bit differently I generally like to hike outside now and that’s what I’ve been doing most of the time but if the weather is bad which occasionally it is it’s too stormy really to be outside safely I’ll walk in my RV which is you know 31 feet long total so I just pace back and forth but ultimately no excuses I can still get them in how many steps is six miles for me and my stride length according to Fitbit is 14,000 steps but yours might be different based on your stride how do you motivate yourself every day basically it comes down to keeping my word to myself back in 2016 when I got very serious about walking six miles I mean I just set as a goal I had read a book called the richest man in Babylon and in that book the main character says you have to become the type of person who when they say you know like for example they’re gonna throw a pebble off a bridge every day they do it every single day and if they forget to do it when you walk by that bridge you forget you go back to that bridge and you throw the pebble off and you don’t just say I’m gonna throw a handful of pebbles and be done with it you have to just do it day in and day out and I really committed to that and so that’s what I do I throw that pebble every single day another thing that really helps me is I feel so good when I get my steps in it’s just almost impossible to be in a bad mood when you’ve gotten in six miles and I feel even now I still feel like six miles is a big accomplishment in the beginning especially because I was doing intermittent fasting the steps just made sense because it gave me something to do besides eat and then you know because I was walking six miles is like well I better stick to the intermittent fasting so I just kind of worked together and another really big reason was it was something I could control now my weight even though I could control you know the trend of it day to day I still cannot control the scale you know like it goes up and down and up and down this is something that I could control every day I can control getting my six miles in and that was really empowering isn’t it boring to me it’s just a decision you can either make it as boring or as enjoyable as you want at first I bribed myself to get my miles in so I would say okay just watch Netflix or Amazon video you know anything – just get the steps in so that’s how I did it in the beginning I just watched a whole bunch of television and then I worked up to you know listening to podcast which I found we’re very informative nowadays my husband has started walking with me so we get to spend a bunch of time together just talking and walking and so you know it’s been great so I feel like you can make them fun you can also do productive things like check email respond to email you can make calls even how many calories does it burn you know this one’s a tricky one because it really does depend on your pace and your weight and height and all that stuff and how old you are so one thing I saw just a quick and easy kind of figure is a hundred calories per mile but you know based on my height and my pace and everything is about 400 to 450 calories every day that I do this did you do it straight from being sedentary to doing 6 miles everyday in the beginning you know when I wasn’t trying to get steps in I would get like 1,300 steps in a day then I started trying to set like but 10,000 step goal and I could do that and that’s the thing like anybody could I think in in reasonably good health go out and walk six miles like it really isn’t an impossible feat or anything but there is something to be said for just going gradually because you know in the beginning I was doing you know 1,300 steps then I would you know sometimes I would do 10,000 but then I was just didn’t have a consistent goal so it would just go up and down and up and down but I did try to build up you know tried to go higher and higher and so I would encourage you to just you know set the goal whatever it is and focus on being really consistent with that and then work on making it you know a little bit more challenging with a higher step goal once I got to 14,000 though I felt like that’s enough for me for now Why six miles I read this article like this celebrity trainer said if you want to lose weight you have to move three miles a day and so I kind of thought well hey if I walk make it really easy on myself I guess I should do six miles and I kind of thought I had the slow metabolism so I thought well maybe if I do six miles everyday maybe that’ll be the key and so that’s what I tried and it has worked for me so I’m curious to know if you’re walking six miles a day you know did you start why why are you walking six miles a day and what are your experiences with it okay thanks for watching be sure to LIKE comment and subscribe down below [/spoiler]

Video Recap

I get a lot of questions about walking 6 miles a day. So I made this video to address the most frequently asked questions. If you prefer to read instead of watch, here are the questions and answers below:

Q: How long does it take to walk 6 miles?

A: It takes me about 2 hours, because I walk at a slow and steady pace, about 3 miles per hour.

Q: Couldn’t you burn a lot more calories if you walked faster?

A: I would burn more calories in the short term. However, I know from experience that I do not enjoy walking fast. I don’t like huffing and puffing. I truly enjoy my walks at a slow and steady pace. This keeps me doing my 6 miles a day consistently over time. Therefore, I feel like in the long run I wouldn’t be burning as many calories if I walked faster, simply because I would not stick with it. See Derek Sivers post here about relaxing for the same result.

Q: How big is your house?

A: In the beginning of my weight loss journey, I walked inside my house. The range of sizes for the various houses we lived in during those years was 1400-1900 square feet. However, most of the time I was walking in the master bedroom, which was only about 120 square feet on average. Now I’m a full time RVer, so I generally hike outside. However, when the weather is too stormy outside, I walk in my class C RV, which is a total of 31 feet long. I just pace back and forth. No excuses.

Q: How many steps is 6 miles?

A: According to my fitbit and my stride length, it’s 14,000 steps. Your count may differ based on your stride length.

Q: How do you motivate yourself to do this every day?

A: Several things:

• It’s mainly about keeping my word to myself. I read a book called The Richest Man in Babylon by George S Clason (Or listen to the Richest Man in Babylon for free with your free 30 day trial of Audible) The part that stood out to me was the idea that you have to become the type of person who, if you say, “I will throw a pebble into the river every day,” you do it, every day. If you forget, you retrace your steps and you throw the pebble. You do not throw a handful of pebbles to be done with it either. You just throw the pebble every single day. And that’s what I do. I walk my 6 miles every day. If it’s late at night and I haven’t gotten them in, I walk late at night. I don’t walk 3 miles one day and 9 the next to “catch up.” It’s 6 miles every day.
• I feel so good when I get my steps in. It’s almost impossible to be in a bad mood after you’ve walked 6 miles.
• 6 miles feels like a big accomplishment, even now.
• In the beginning, walking was a way that I reinforced my intermittent fasting habit. It gave me something to do instead of eat. And then conversely, because I was walking 6 miles, it helped me to want to stick to intermittent fasting more, because I was putting that effort out.
• I can control my steps. I can’t control my daily weight fluctuations, but I can control whether I get my steps in or not. It’s empowering to have that control.

Q: Isn’t it boring?

A: To me, it’s a choice. But in the beginning I did bribe myself with Amazon video. Eventually I started listening to podcasts. Recently my husband has started walking with me, which is really awesome because we’re walking and talking for 2 hours. There are other ways to make it more exciting:

• Talk on the phone (I don’t really like talking on the phone, but I occasionally will use my walking time to catch up with people in my life who do like it).
• Surf social media
• Be productive: make business calls, check email, (I work out what I’m going to say in these videos while I walk)

Q: How many calories does it burn?

A: I’ve seen a rule of thumb that says 100 calories per mile, but your pace, the terrain, your weight and age all go into a more accurate calculation. According to a calorie burn calculator I used, I’m burning about 400-450 calories when I walk 6 miles based on my weight and pace.

Q: Did you go straight from being sedentary to walking 6 miles every day?

A: No. I think most reasonably healthy individuals have the ability to go from sedentary to walking 6 miles. It’s not an incredible physical feat. I went from sedentary to being able to walk 10,000 steps. But I wasn’t consistent in the beginning. I did eventually set my goal higher and higher, and eventually got to 14,000 steps. I’d recommend first working on consistency at a lower step goal, then working your way up in the step count goal.

Q: Why did you choose 6 miles?

A: I read an article where a celebrity trainer recommended moving 3 miles a day for weight loss, so I figured that since I was a) going to walk at a slow and steady pace and b) I believed I had a slow metabolism, I should double that. And since I found my plan worked, I just continued to stick with it.

Do you walk 6 miles a day? What have you experienced? Did you have a question I didn’t answer above? Leave it in the comments below!