Walk to Lose Weight

The sedate pastime of walking has never really been considered anything more than a relaxing way to spend a pleasant summer evening strolling through a formal garden or in a more practical sense from getting us from one place to another in the most natural way we can. Of course, this method of transport can be enhanced to turn it into a very useful and easy method of losing some weight and also improving fitness along the way. Here is how you can do this.

Walking to Fitness

The first thing you need to be aware of is that a casual stroll will not do you much good apart from get you out of the house and into the beneficial sunlight and fresh air. To make it count as an exercise form, you need to pick up the pace and treat it like you would any other kind of workout or training. The best course of action is to pick a route that you will walk along. The best kind is a circular route that will bring you back to where you started, like the front door of your home. Then make sure that it is of a decent length that will take you the best part of half an hour or more to complete at a quickened walking pace. Once you have done this, then all you have to do is set off and keep going.

At first, it may not be possible to walk a long route and so you should start with a shorter one that you know you can do without causing you to over stretch your abilities. In the early stages, any exercise form should be started small and slow and built up over time to allow your body to become accustomed to the increased work rate. Once you are sure you can keep that quick walking pace up for more than 20 minutes to half an hour or more, then you can increase the length of your walking route or circuit.

Burning Calories

The whole idea of this exercise is to burn calories, or more specifically to deplete your blood sugar levels. Once you get past the 20 minute mark, you will be in to burning fat that your body needs to process into sugars that will feed your muscles. It doesn't make much difference how hard you are working as it still takes that initial 20 minutes to deplete the blood sugar level to the point where you body must replace it.

The longer you can continue walking quickly in excess of 20 minutes, the more calories you will use up, the more sugars will need to be replaces and so the more fat you will use up. Of course, your body can go on for a very long time just on its store of fat, so you will not deplete it all in a single session, nor will you do it over a week or even several. It will take time, but if you do this every day, then within several weeks you will have used up plenty of fat and will have lost a few inches and some weight. Of course, this also depends on what you are eating, so you must also eat a sensible diet that is low in refined sugar and carbohydrates while being higher in protein, unsaturated fats and fiber or all the hard work will be for nothing of you get home and wolf down a pizza and a box of cookies washed down with several cans of soda!

Although you will also have increased the muscle mass especially in your legs and while they will look a whole load better for being trimmer and more toned you may not actually lose all that much weight simply because muscle weighs more than fat. The fat you have used up will be balanced by an increase in muscle, although the volumes involved here are actually quite small and you will certainly NOT end up with legs like Mr Universe!

What you will end up with when you lose weight with exercise like walking is a fitter, healthier body that has less fat and looks a whole load better for being slimmer and better toned!

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