How long should I walk in day?

[Charlotte]

I've always wondered, how long should you walk every day to be healthy and to obtain enough exercise? Is it a half hour or an hour? What is more important, how long you walk or the distance you walk? I'd really like to make sure I'm doing enough.

[JokerzWild]

I think distance matters more than time. A really good walk is 6 km (just over 3 and a half miles), but if you're not quite ready for that, start with 2 km (just over 1 mile) and then work your way up to 4 (almost 2 and a half miles) until you reach 6 k. How long it takes you to walk depends on your fitness level, how fast you walk, etc.

[suzieQ]

I don't really measure how far I go. I just go for a really good power walk for 30 - 40 minutes and I find it's exactly what I need.

[TammyBear]

I think the goal is to get in a minimum of 30 minutes. Whether that's 30 straight or two 15 minutes, it's good. The goal is to get periods of continual activity that is more than 10 minutes straight. These should be your bare minimums though.

[ChristySmiles]

I always thought that you should walk a minimum of 30 minutes per day, because you wan to get your heart rate up and keep it up for a good period of time. Otherwise, you're not really getting much benefit from the walk.

[Charlotte]

So...I guess it is all a matter of personal preference and belief... Maybe I'll just start with 30 minutes and go from there. Thanks for responding.

[MadMike]

I started at 30 minutes but as I got more in shape I built it up to 60 minutes because otherwise I really wasn't challenging myself and it wasn't doing as much for me anymore

[Whirlybird]

It depends on how fast you go! If you are really zipping along as fast as you can, then 30 minutes may be all you need. If you scale it back a bit, you might need to go twice as far. So it really does have a lot to do with the effort that you are putting in right from the start.