Remember seeing groups of mall walkers wearing sweatbands and wristbands back in the 90s? Well, the trend of indoor walking is back in a big way, thanks to convenient at-home devices like walking pads and viral indoor walking challenges like TikTok’s #CostcoWalks. The craze provides safe places to exercise when the temperature drops and sidewalks may be covered with ice. As a bonus: Indoor walking workouts are helping loads of people lose weight and keep it off. Here, why experts believe indoor walking works when all else fails, how you can get started, plus the amazing success stories of two women who have lost 100+ pounds each!
Indoor walking surged when people shifted to remote work
Lots of people began indoor walking again during the pandemic, when they were stuck at home. Case in point: Lisa Erickson lost 50 pounds while walking up to 20 miles a day using a treadmill desk in her home office. Now she inspires people on TikTok as “the-walking-worker.” Her videos have 1.5 million likes. In all, she’s logged more than 13 million indoor walking steps over the past four years!
These days, big-box store with plenty of space, like Sam’s Club, Walmart or The Home Depot, have become common spots for indoor walkers. Some stores, like PetSmart, even allow you to walk inside with your pet.
Why walking can lead to lasting weight loss success
Weight-loss experts over and over again all cite the same tool for success: walking! Why? Research shows walking, in general, delivers clear weight-loss results. In one study published in Nutrients, comfortable-pace walkers lost 2.73 times more body fat than runners. And in another study, when overweight, inactive folks started walking, they lost 5 pounds more dangerous body fat than those who didn’t stroll. Lisa Asbell, a registered nurse, wellness coach and founder of Well Weight Loss, says, “While walking may only burn 200 to 300 calories per session, those calories are often the critical difference in achieving a healthy weight.”
Asbell, who lost 100 pounds herself and has kept off the weight for more than five years, says, “For my clients and me, walking has been a literal lifesaver—100 percent of my clients who have lost weight and kept it off incorporate daily movement, and the majority of them are daily walkers.”
Indoor walking allows people to stay consistent
There’s also the convenience piece of the puzzle. We know it can be hard to be motivated to drive to a gym, so at-home walking makes it easier to stay consistent—one of the key features to losing weight and keeping it off for life. And nothing is more convenient that walking around your home.
Shauna Levy, MD, Director of Bariatric Surgery at Tulane, explains that the reason people often backslide after stopping a weight-loss method “is because our body wants to gain that weight back, which is part of the disease of obesity.” The good news: Walking is a free, easy, accessible habit that doesn’t require special equipment, a gym membership or a steep learning curve. So unlike fad diets or pricey weight-loss medications, you never have to quit. Plus, walking makes you feel so good, you won’t want to quit.
The health benefits of walking indoors and outdoors
In addition to helping people lose weight, walking improves bone density and heart health. It can even help add up to 11 years to your life, according to a British Journal of Sports Medicine study. But there’s a mental component, too. Cardiologist David Sabgir, MD, founder of Walk With a Doc, explains, “It releases wonderful chemicals that increase our self-esteem, giving us the faith and belief that we can do this.” And Asbell adds the activity also reduces stress hormones and improves sleep to make weight loss even easier. Asbell says, “Walking generates success stories because it’s not just about burning calories; it’s about creating a sustainable lifestyle that supports both physical and mental health.”
Try an indoor walking workout for yourself
Ready to get started with a walking routine? Follow our beginning steps below, or try our 28-day indoor walking plan. And don’t miss the amazing weight-loss success stories at the end. In both cases, walking was their last-ditch effort when every other method failed!
1. Establish a baseline
For a few days before starting, track how many steps you’re already getting. This will give you an indication of where you are and how you can expand. And while many experts recommend getting 10,000 steps a day, there is a science to how many steps you need for weight loss.
2. Let those steps add up
To boost your step count, try to walk daily, or at least more days per week than your baseline. To do so, try putting on some music and doing laps around your house or office, utilizing hallways and other convenient spaces. Or head to a big-box store like Costco and watch your step count soar as you walk for weight loss.
3. Burn more calories
Add walking up and down flights of stairs to burn extra calories and tone your muscles. Walking at a brisk pace will also ensure aerobic activity by increasing your heart rate. Or add intensity to your walks by wearing a weighted vest or ruck sack.
4. Make walking easier with equipment
Convenient walking pads, which are like smaller, more affordable and easier-to-store treadmills, are changing the indoor walking game. One to try: Yemsd Walking Pad ($135, Amazon.com). In pain? Consider walking in water at a YMCA pool. Sore joints will feel weightless.
5. Allow tech to make indoor walks more fun
One complaint about indoor walking is that it can be boring. An easy fix: Check out the free YouTube channel CityWalks, a collection of 546 different walks through picturesque locations around the world that you can view while strolling on a treadmill. One viewer shared, “I’ve lost over 30 pounds and this channel has been a major factor when I can’t get out on real-world trails.” Robin Westerman posted, “I have lost 15 pounds in three months!” Lelia Skarboe says, “I have had three failed back surgeries and could not get motivated to walk more than 2,000 steps in a day. Now I’m up to 10,000+ daily. Also I lost 50 pounds!” And Sherie Lee reports, “I am off of all medications now and have lost 17 pounds, and my son has lost 25 pounds [in six months].” So get walking and enjoy “traveling” the globe too!
Indoor walking success story #1: “I dropped from a size 20 to 0!”
After breaking both of her ankles in 2020, Brooke Boatman, of Uniontown, OH, was immobile and packed on pounds. “I lost the motivation to do much of anything for my health,” she recalls. “I tried everything, I mean everything: cleanses, pills, fasting, no carbs, body wraps, you name it.” But nothing worked. As a last-ditch effort, she joined Lindora weight-loss counseling. She really clicked with her nurse Paola, who told Brooke to start walking 10,000 steps a day.
Brooke began using a treadmill at home and walking around Sam’s Club. “I started very slow. But was getting my steps in and my heart rate up.”
Brooke started seeing results. She lost 21 pounds in one month. She adds, “I had so much energy. I slept better. My bones and joints weren’t carrying around so much pressure on them.”
As Brooke shed more than 125 pounds in 9 months her walking turned to running. She got off all Rx meds. Her blood pressure fell from 200/110 to 124/72 and her cholesterol improved from 237 to 149. Inspired, she went back to school to study holistic healthcare. And she became a yoga teacher. “I did 200 hours of yoga teacher training!”
“This transformation has changed my life, I’m built with so much muscle. I can jog stairs now. I had a knee replacement this year and I’m back to sprinting!” Brooke, who is on Instagram @Brookeboatman, adds, “It has opened employment opportunities for me to fitness model, teach yoga and really help others. Lindora brought so much joy into my life as well as success!”
Weight loss success story #2: “I dropped 25 pounds in one month!”
As a business owner, Javana Buehler, of Albuquerque, NM, felt blessed to be able to reward her staff by taking them on a cruise. But she felt mortified when she had to ask for a seatbelt extender on the airplane in front of everyone. She wondered, I’ve been successful in so many other things. Why can’t I ever find a way to lose the weight?
Diets didn’t work for Javana. “I have probably lost a total of 500 pounds in my life. I’d lose it and gain it.” She admits, “I hated exercise. I needed to find an exercise I enjoyed.” But she didn’t mind walking. So as a last-ditch effort, she joined the Well Weight Loss support group and started walking at night around her open-concept house, just for 30 minutes. Sometimes she walked at a mall. Since she lived at high altitude, she noticed she has more stamina walking inside than outside. With practice, she found, “Walking was so easy. I didn’t need a gym membership or anything special. It was no longer work to walk. My body started to crave movement.” She says, “I slept better, had more energy and more stamina.” Best of all: She started losing weight—as many as 25 pounds in one month.
Javana slowly built up to walking 10,000 steps a day, some outside. Now Javana says, “I’m falling in love with my body again. I’m finding bones I have I forgot I had like wrists. I forgot I had an hourglass figure!” This transformation was truly life-changing. It inspired Javana to start going back to the doctor again for an annual physical for the first time in 6 years. It was something she avoided, after years of being lectured about her weight. There, she learned she had a spot of melanoma skin cancer on her leg. She had it removed, saying, “It was such a blessing that I went to the doctor. I would have been in real trouble!” She says, “I think Lisa Asbell’s Well Weight Loss program saved my life!”
Today, Javana says, “Changing my lifestyle is the hardest thing I’ve ever done. But now that I have done it, it’s easy!” Her reward: She is no longer diabetic (her A1C fell from 8 to 5.6 and her blood pressure improved from 140/95 to 116/80.) Her motto: “You have to lose it the way you can live it!”
This content is not a substitute for professional medical advice or diagnosis. Always consult your physician before pursuing any treatment plan.
