The British Heart Foundation recommends 150 minutes of brisk walking per week for heart health.
"If you're not getting your heart rate up to at least 70 percent of your max for 30 minutes or more, you may not see the scale move very much," said Giamo. That means you need to be walking briskly, not slowly dawdling as you text on your phone. If you're on a treadmill, aim to walk at a pace of five kilometres per hour or higher, and get your heart rate up by increasing the speed or walking on an incline.
Our bodies will also quickly adapt to the stressors we place on it. We need to change the variables to get the same amount of caloric burn out of our walks, explained Canu. "If you do the same 30-minute walk every day, your body will adjust and you will no longer burn as many calories on that walk. You will then need to walk faster, walk uphill, or walk longer," she said.