Walking Mistakes That Make It Hard To Burn Belly Fat

Scroll through YouTube, TikTok, or Instagram, and you'll see tons of people doing intense, sometimes over-the-top workouts that promise to torch belly fat. A lot of times, creators are flaunting their visible abs as "proof." But while defined abs are nice to look at, keeping belly fat in check is important for everyone, not just for showing off. That's because too much belly fat, especially the kind that surrounds your organs (called visceral fat), can be harmful to your health.

The good news is you don't need to jump into extreme workout challenges to start trimming that belly fat. Something as simple as walking can make a real difference in losing belly fat. But before you lace up and hit the pavement, know that a leisurely stroll to grab your coffee probably isn't going to cut it. When it comes to walking for fat loss, two big mistakes people make are walking too slowly and not walking long enough. To really see results, you'll need to get your heart rate up and keep it elevated for a good stretch of time. That's what helps your body burn more calories and ultimately, more fat.

Health experts generally recommend a minimum of 150 minutes of moderate exercise per week for overall health. That breaks down to about 30 minutes a day, five days a week. For some, that's totally doable — or at least a good goal to work toward if you haven't been exercising regularly.

But if your goal is to burn fat, especially belly fat, you may need to bump that up a bit. A 2021 meta-analysis in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health found that the exercise programs most effective for weight loss and reducing visceral fat lasted about 50 minutes per session, four times a week. And consistency matters. These programs lasted an average of 22 weeks.

(Read about what happens to your body when you don't exercise.)

So, how do you know if your walking pace counts as moderate or vigorous? According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, moderate exercise involves a little bit of sweating and a noticeable increase in heart rate. You don't need a heart rate monitor, but you should feel your heart beating faster than when you're at rest. If you're walking with a friend, moderate intensity means you can hold a conversation but wouldn't be able to sing.

To burn more calories, try walking faster. Vigorous activity should be intense enough that you can't get through a full sentence without pausing for breath. If that pace feels tough to maintain, try interval walking. Push yourself for 30 seconds at a brisk pace, then return to a moderate pace for a few minutes before speeding up again.

You might be tempted to go on a crash diet to lose weight quickly, but that's not the best approach if your goal is to reduce belly fat, according to a 2016 article in Obesity Reviews. Cutting calories can help with overall weight loss, but exercise is more effective at targeting harmful belly fat. In fact, even if you don't lose weight while following an exercise program, you may still lose about 6% of your visceral fat.

That doesn't mean you can eat whatever you want while trying to slim your waistline. The Mediterranean diet is a flexible eating plan that doesn't focus on calorie counting. Instead, it encourages you to get most of your food from fruits, vegetables, beans, and whole grains, while also emphasizing healthy fats from olive oil and fatty fish.

A "green" version of the Mediterranean diet may be even more effective at reducing visceral fat, according to a 2022 study in BMC Medicine. This version includes more plant-based polyphenols from foods like walnuts and green tea, while cutting back on red meat. For 18 months, people in the study exercised and followed one of three eating plans: a generally healthy eating plan, the traditional Mediterranean diet, or the green Mediterranean diet. Those on the green Mediterranean diet lost twice as much visceral fat as those following the standard Mediterranean diet due to the higher intake of polyphenols.