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How Long Should You Walk or Run on a Treadmill to Lose Belly Fat?

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Walking or running on a treadmill can provide moderate to vigorous physical activity that burns calories and improves cardiovascular fitness.

The ideal length of a treadmill workout depends on goals. Increasing physical activity while adopting a healthy eating pattern can help with weight loss and belly fat loss. For cardiovascular health, varying time and intensity can increase endurance, a sign of a healthy heart and lungs.

Treadmill for Weight Loss

For overall health, experts recommend adults get 150 minutes of moderate aerobic exercise activity a week or 75 minutes of vigorous activity. It is best to spread this activity out throughout the week.

To lose weight, adults need to increase or intensify current physical activity levels and achieve or maintain healthy eating patterns.

Targeting Belly Fat

Although limited research exists that spot reduction—the ability to target fat from a specific area—is possible, it is generally accepted that the best way to lose belly fat is through exercise and overall body fat loss.

Brisk Walking

Walking at a brisk pace that increases your heart and breathing rate but still allows you to carry on a conversation is considered moderate aerobic exercise. For many, this is a 3 miles per hour (mph) or faster pace.

For overall health, you should walk at least 150 minutes weekly at this pace. If you are not meeting this goal, reaching it can help you lose weight. If you already engage in physical activity for 150 minutes a week, try slowly adding more minutes to your workout routine to see results.

To reach 150 minutes a week, try the following workout options:

  • Briskly walk on the treadmill for 30 minutes five days a week.
  • Walk on Mondays and Fridays for an hour each day and walk for half an hour on Wednesdays.

To increase walking time for weight loss, consider the following:

  • Add an extra 10 minutes on three of the five days you walk.
  • If you only walk three days a week, add an extra day of walking for 30 minutes.

Running

Running is considered a vigorous activity that increases heart rate and is strenuous enough that it’s difficult to carry on a conversation. For many people, this begins at a 5 mph pace. Aiming for 75 minutes a week can be good for overall health.

To achieve 75 minutes of running, try to:

  • Run on Monday and Friday for 30 minutes and Wednesday for 15 minutes.
  • Run once weekly for 30 minutes and once on the weekend for 45 minutes.

To increase running time:

  • If you run three days a week, add five minutes to each run for a week and another five minutes the following week. After two weeks, you’ll have increased your time by 30 minutes.
  • If you run twice a week, add another 15 minutes of running on another day. Slowly increase that extra day to 30 minutes.

Treadmill for Building Cardiovascular Health

Improving cardiovascular health, which is the health of your heart, lungs, and circulatory system, can improve overall health and decrease the risk of cardiovascular disease.

To improve cardiovascular health, adults need 150 to 300 minutes of moderate physical activity a week or 75 to 150 minutes of vigorous activity weekly. It is best to spread the activity out throughout the week.

Brisk Walking

To increase your brisk walking time from 150 to 300 minutes a week, incrementally increase your time in each treadmill session. A common rule of thumb is to increase your time by 10% each week until you reach your time goal. Your ultimate goal may be to:

  • Walk for one hour five days a week.
  • Walk three days a week for an hour, then choose one weekend day to walk for two hours.

Try varying the treadmill incline. This can quickly change the intensity of the workout. For example, going from a brisk walk on flat ground to walking uphill might even push you into the vigorous workout zone. This is because you’re intensifying your workout and allowing you to spend less time on the treadmill.

Running

To increase running time from 75 to 150 minutes a week, increase your time per session and total time per week incrementally. Your ultimate goal may be to:

  • Run for 30 minutes five days a week.
  • Run two days a week for an hour each, then running one day for 30 minutes.

The 12-3-30 Workout

Popularized on social media, the 12-3-30 workout gives structure to a 30-minute walk. To do this, set the treadmill to a 12% incline and walk for 30 minutes at a 3 mph pace. This can be an intense workout, so you may need to build up to it, varying the time or the incline each week.

For Beginners

When beginning a treadmill workout program, start out slowly. Take your time to discover what pace works best for you, whether you’re walking or running. Slowly add time to your weekly workouts to meet your goals.

Brisk Walking

For beginners, a brisk walk may be slightly slower than the 3 mph pace prescribed above, and that’s OK. Begin at a pace that makes sense to you. Remember, moderate activity will increase your heart rate, but you should still be able to converse.

A beginner 30-minute workout to try:

  1. Warm up for five minutes at an easy pace.
  2. Increase your pace by 0.5 mph and walk for five minutes.
  3. Adjust your speed to hit the moderate activity level and walk for 15 minutes more.
  4. Cool down by decreasing pace to an easy pace and walking for five minutes.
  5. Repeat five times a week.

Running

Beginning runners can work up to running for extended periods by mixing walking with running.

For a beginner, try this:

  1. Warm up for five minutes at a brisk walking pace.
  2. Increase the pace to an easy jog and jog for five minutes.
  3. Decrease the pace to a brisk walk for two minutes.
  4. Increase the pace to a run for five minutes.
  5. Walk for two minutes.
  6. Run for five minutes.
  7. Walk for one minute.
  8. Run for two minutes.
  9. Cool down by walking for three minutes.

HIIT Workouts

High-intensity interval training (HIIT) workouts can efficiently get the same benefits as long moderate-intensity workouts in less time. These workouts provide bursts of intense exercise followed by short periods of rest.

You can mix HIIT intervals into your longer workouts or swap a regular exercise for a HIIT workout once or twice a week. Many treadmills have programmed HIIT workouts that you can try.

Brisk Walking

A brisk-walking HIIT workout varies your pace throughout the workout.

A HIIT workout to try:

  1. Warm up for five minutes with an easy walk.
  2. Increase the pace to the fastest you can maintain for one minute.
  3. Decrease your pace to walk slowly for 30 seconds.
  4. Repeat this pattern three more times. Increase for one minute, decrease for 30 seconds.
  5. Cool down with a five-minute walk.

Alternatively, you can experiment with increasing and decreasing the incline instead of the pace for the HIIT intervals.

Running

With a HIIT running workout, you might find yourself sprinting during the intense intervals, and that’s OK. However, remember to choose the pacing that works for you.

A HIIT workout to try is:

  1. Warm up for five minutes with a brisk walk.
  2. Run at a fast pace or sprint for one minute.
  3. Slow down to a jog or brisk walk for two minutes.
  4. Repeat this pattern three more times by sprinting for a minute and jogging or walking briskly for two minutes.
  5. Cool down with a five-minute walk or jog.

A Word From Verywell

If you have a chronic health condition such as a heart or lung condition, are pregnant, have an injury, or are uncertain about any symptoms, see a medical professional before starting or changing an exercise to prevent any harm. They can guide you on how best to proceed and what movements to avoid.

How to Safely Build Time and Intensity on the Treadmill

Gradually Increase Intensity

To increase the intensity of your workout, you will need to increase your pace, incline, or both. To prevent injury, make these increases gradually over time.

This might involve increasing the pace by 0.25 mph for five minutes of each walk or running for a day or two. The next day, walk or run at that increased pace for 10 minutes each session.

Slowly increase time at the new pace over several days or weeks until you can maintain a new baseline speed for the entire workout.

Listen to Your Body

When attempting to increase time or intensity, pay attention to how your body feels during and after a workout.

Experiencing pain during a workout can indicate that you’re going too fast or have a too-high incline. Struggling to complete your next workout after a harder one could suggest you overdid it.

Do Not Forget to Warm Up or Cool Down

Properly warming up and cooling down can help prevent pain and injury in your muscles and joints.

Summary

The ideal duration of a treadmill workout depends on your goals. For general health, experts recommend 150 minutes a week of moderate or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity activity. The time and/or intensity of workouts need to increase for weight loss. To improve cardiovascular health, weekly workout times should double.

Try different treadmill workouts and break down weekly time requirements over three, four, or five days to reach these goals. For beginners, the goal is to get the minimum weekly requirements and increase from there.

HIIT workouts are a great way to increase intensity and vary the workout. When building time and intensity, it’s important to remember to warm up and cool down, pay attention to your body, and make gradual increases to stay safe and injury-free.