Walking 4 Miles A Day: Here's What To Expect - Marathon Handbook

“How much should you walk a day?” is one of the most common questions people have when trying to look after their health or get in shape. We are all well aware that walking is a fantastic form of aerobic exercise and has many beneficial effects on your physical and mental health.

However, many people aren’t sure how much they need to walk a day to really see changes in their body or make improvements in their health and fitness.

Although there’s not necessarily a definitive answer to how much you need to walk a day, walking 4 miles a day is right around the perfect goal for many people.

Walking 4 miles a day may sound like a bit overwhelming, but it can be rather doable, especially if you decide to break it up into a couple of different sessions throughout the day.

In this article, we will look at what to expect from walking 4 miles a day, such as how long it takes to walk 4 miles, how many calories you burn walking 4 miles, tips for how to make that 4-mile walk an approachable goal and some of the benefits of walking 4 miles a day.

More specifically, in this guide we will cover:

• How Far Is 4 Miles?

• How Long Does It Take to Walk 4 Miles a Day?

• How Many Calories Do You Burn Walking 4 Miles a Day?

• How to Walk 4 Miles a Day

Let’s get started!

How Far Is 4 Miles?

A mile is the equivalent of 5,280 feet or 1,609 meters, so 4 miles is 6.4 kilometers.

If you decide to walk on a standard 400-meter running track, you will need to walk just over 16 full laps to walk 4 miles.

Although the lengths of a city block can vary from place to place and even block to block somewhat, a mile is roughly 20 city blocks, so 4 miles is about 80 blocks.

How Long Does It Take to Walk 4 Miles a Day?

Many beginner walkers aren’t sure how long it takes to walk a mile, let alone the time commitment needed for walking 4 miles a day. It can vary quite a bit person to person.

There are quite a number of factors that can affect your walking speed including your age, sex, fitness level, the terrain your walking on, how hard you are pushing yourself, whether or not you are carrying some kind of external load, and the environmental conditions you’re walking in.

In general, walking speed decreases with age (after middle age), so one study tried to determine the average walking speed based on age and sex.

According to the data, the researchers reported the following walking speeds according to age and sex:

Age	Average Walking Speed for Women (mph)	Average Walking Speed for Men (mph)
20-29	3.0	3.4
30-39	3.0	3.2
40-49	3.11	3.2
50-59	2.93	3.2
60-69	2.77	3.0
70-79	2.53	2.82
80-89	2.1	2.17

Based on these walking speeds, we can calculate how long it takes to walk 4 miles based on age and sex, as shown in the table below:

Age	How Long Does It Take to Walk 4 Miles for Women? (hours : minutes : seconds)	How Long Does It Take to Walk 4 Miles for Men? (hours: minutes : seconds)
20-29	1:20:00	1:10:38
30-39	1:20:00	1:15:00
40-49	1:17:08	1:15:00
50-59	1:21:55	1:15:00
60-69	1:27:40	1:20:00
70-79	1:34:52	1:25:04
80-89	1:54:04	1:50:38

How Long Does It Take to Walk 4 Miles at Different Paces?

There is nothing to say that just because you are older, you’ll walk slower, and the converse is also true.

Therefore, if you want to know how long it takes to walk 4 miles at different walking paces, refer to the table below:

Walking Speed (mph)	Walking Pace (min/mile)	How Long Does It Take to Walk 4 Miles? (min : sec)
2.8	21:26	84:24
3	20:00	80:00
3.1	19:21	77:21
3.2	18:45	75:00
3.3	18:10	72:42
3.4	17:38	70:38
3.5	17:08	68:32
3.6	16:40	66:41
3.7	16:12	64:53
3.8	15:47	63:07
3.9	15:23	61:24
4	15:00	60:00
4.1	14:38	58:33
4.2	14:17	57:07
4.3	13:57	55:48
4.4	13:38	54:33
4.5	13:20	53:20
4.6	13:02	52:12
4.7	12:45	51:00
4.8	12:30	50:00
4.9	12:14	48:55
5	12:00	48:00

How Many Calories Do You Burn Walking 4 Miles a Day?

No matter what type of exercise you choose to do, it’s helpful to know how many calories you’ll burn.

The number of calories you burn walking 4 miles a day depends primarily on your body weight and the intensity of your walk (your walking pace).

The more you weigh, the faster you walk, and the steeper the incline (if you’re walking uphill), the more calories you will burn.

Wearing a heart rate monitor is the best way to estimate how many calories you burn because your heart rate can be used to gauge the intensity of your workout.

However, even if you don’t have a fitness watch with a heart rate monitor, you can calculate a rough estimate of the number of calories you burn walking four miles a day by using metabolic equivalents (METs).

The Compendium of Physical Activities reports that walking at a leisurely pace of 2.8-3.2 mph on a level surface is equivalent to 3.5 METs. Walking at a pace of 3.5 mph on a level surface is 4.3 METs, while walking at a brisk pace of 4.0 mph on a level surface is rated at 5 METs, and finally, walking at a very brisk pace of 4.5 mph is 7 METs.

Walking 2.9–3.5 mph uphill at a 1 to 5% grade is roughly 5.3 METs, and maintaining that pace while climbing a 6 to 15% grade bumps the metabolic demand up to 8 METs.

Using these METs values, you can calculate the number of calories burned walking a mile at various speeds and weights using the following equation to determine energy expenditure:

Calories Burned Per Minute = METs x 3.5 x (your body weight in kilograms) / 200

Then, if you are walking 4 miles a day, this calculated value is multiplied by the number of minutes it takes you to walk 4 miles.

Below, we’ve created a chart that uses these METs values for various walking speeds and conditions to calculate the approximate number of calories burned walking 4 miles a day for different body weights.

Note that some of the METs values given were for a range of walking speeds, so the average time to walk a mile in that range was used to calculate the number of minutes it would take to walk approximately 4 miles at that pace.

You can use this table to get a ballpark idea of approximately how many calories you will burn walking 4 miles per day.

Weight (lbs)	Weight (kg)	Calories Burned Walking 4 Miles a Day at 2.8-3.2 mph	Calories Burned Walking 4 Miles a Day at 3.5 mph	Calories Burned Walking 4 Miles a Day at 4.0 mph	Calories Burned Walking 4 Miles a Day at 4.5 mph	Calories Burned Walking 4 Miles a Day at 2.9–3.5 mph at 1-5% Grade	Calories Burned Walking 4 Miles a Day at 2.9–3.5 mph at 6-15% Grade
90	40.9	200.4	211.0	214.7	267.1	288.3	435.2
100	45.5	223.0	234.7	238.9	297.2	320.7	484.1
110	50	245.0	258.0	262.5	326.6	352.5	532.0
120	54.5	267.1	281.2	286.1	356.0	384.2	579.9
130	59.1	289.6	304.9	310.3	386.0	416.6	628.8
140	63.6	311.6	328.1	333.9	415.4	448.3	676.7
150	68.2	334.2	351.9	358.1	445.5	480.7	725.6
160	72.7	356.2	375.1	381.7	474.9	512.5	773.5
170	77.3	378.8	398.8	405.8	504.9	544.9	822.5
180	81.8	400.8	422.0	429.5	534.3	576.6	870.4
190	86.4	423.4	445.7	453.6	564.3	609.0	919.3
200	90.9	445.4	469.0	477.2	593.7	640.8	967.2
210	95.5	468.0	492.7	501.4	623.8	673.2	1016.1
220	100	490.0	515.9	525.0	653.2	704.9	1064.0
230	104.5	512.1	539.1	548.6	682.6	736.6	1111.9
240	109.1	534.6	562.9	572.8	712.6	769.0	1160.8
250	113.6	556.6	586.1	596.4	742.0	800.8	1208.7
260	118.2	579.2	609.8	620.6	772.0	833.2	1257.6
270	122.7	601.2	633.0	644.2	801.4	864.9	1305.5
280	127.3	623.8	656.8	668.3	831.5	897.3	1354.5
290	131.8	645.8	680.0	692.0	860.9	929.1	1402.4
300	136.4	668.4	703.7	716.1	890.9	961.5	1451.3
310	140.9	690.4	726.9	739.7	920.3	993.2	1499.2
320	145.5	713.0	750.7	763.9	950.4	1025.6	1548.1
330	150	735.0	773.9	787.5	979.8	1057.4	1596.0
340	159.1	757.3	797.3	811.4	1009.4	1089.4	1644.4
350	159.1	779.5	820.8	835.2	1039.1	1121.4	1692.7

How to Walk 4 Miles a Day

Along with building an aerobic base, improving your health in general, and helping maintain a healthy weight, one of the main benefits of walking 4 miles a day is that it’s a doable exercise goal for most people, even if you’ve been inactive for some time.

It’s an especially approachable goal if you start small and build up gradually, or split your daily walks into 2 miles in the morning and 2 miles in the evening.

Start with something like a 30-day mile a day challenge, and then keep adding 5-10 minutes a day to your walks until you’re up to walking 4 miles a day.

You can do it!