Can You Lose Weght Working Out 40 Minutes on the Treadmill?

Regularly working out helps with weight loss because exercise efficiently increases the number of calories you burn. Whether your 40-minute workouts on the treadmill will lead to weight loss depends on a number of factors, including how often you do your workouts and the intensity of your sessions.

Your body constantly needs calories to fuel a variety of body processes and it gets these calories from the food and drink you consume. If your body needs more calories than it receives from what you eat and drink, it’s forced to get the calories from breaking down the body fat you have stored on your body. Therefore, to lose weight, efforts should focus on burning a higher number of calories than you consume every day. Every 3,500 caloric deficit leads to one pound of fat loss.

The number of calories you’ll burn during your treadmill workouts depends on the speed you’re walking or running, how long you go for and how much you currently weigh. According to MayoClinic.com, a 160-pound person walking at 2 mph will burn about 137 calories during a 40-minute workout or about 210 calories if she walks at 3.5 mph. If that 160-pound person picked up the pace and ran at 5 mph, she would burn about 406 calories during that time. A 200-pound person will burn even more calories during his treadmill workouts. A 2 mph walk will burn about 171 calories in 40 minutes, while walking at 3.5 mph will chalk up about 262 calories burned. Every 40 minutes a 200-pound person runs at 5 mph will burn about 506 calories.

A healthy rate of weight loss is about a half to two pounds per week. This would mean you’d need to create a weekly caloric deficit of 1,750 to 7,000. By understanding how many calories you burn during your 40-minute treadmill workouts you can then determine how long it will take you to lose weight. For example, the 160-pound person who walks on a treadmill at 3.5 mph for 40 minutes and burns about 210 calories during each workout will lose a pound of fat about every 17 workouts. This was determined by dividing 210 by 3,500. If she got in five walks per week, it would take her a little over two weeks to lose a pound.

Being consistent with your treadmill workouts will still not result in weight loss if you don’t pay attention to the number of calories you eat and drink. A single higher-calorie meal or an extra beer in the evening can quickly cancel out the calories you burned during your workouts. Limit your calorie intake by drinking primarily water, consuming primarily fruits, vegetables, lean proteins, low-fat dairy products and whole-grain foods, and cutting your portion sizes.