One of the advantages of walking is the ease. Unlike other activities, walking is a low barrier and brings a lot of pleasure. Moreover, you don’t need additional equipment for walking since it is free and available to everyone.
However, when it comes to successful weight loss strategies, walking is underestimated. Many go to the gym, play sports, and practice pilates to shed pounds. Yet studies show that daily walking is no less effective than the generally targeted weight loss exercises.
But to get rid of excess weight, it is not enough to just walk – it is important to apply a few rules.
Basic Rules
The main factors that affect the burning of calories while walking are: distance travelled, speed, and body weight. Do not load yourself immediately, but gradually increase the length of the walking route and the walking speed.
Remember that a slow and short walk is useless, while if you walk too fast and unprepared for too long, you can even harm yourself. Exercise regularly. One walk a week will not help you. If you can’t walk every day, then do it at least two or three times a week, preferably at least an hour or two after a meal.
Pay attention to posture while walking: the torso and shoulders should be straightened, and the abdomen should be retracted.
Walk More Than Before
There is no magic formula that reveals how many steps, kilometres, or hours it takes to walk to lose a certain number of kilograms in a certain period of time. What is certain is that daily brisk walking for 30 to 60 minutes burns calories, speeds up metabolism, and stimulates muscle building.
How much you will lose depends on many factors: how fast you walk, what gender you are, what the temperature is outside, and whether you walk on a flat surface or cross hills. For starters, move more than you’ve ever done. Most people do well with a goal of 10,000 or more daily steps.
Change The Speed
Walking at intervals is a great way to help you burn more calories and make the walk interesting. There are three different types of steps: walking (like when looking at shop windows), brisk walking (slightly accelerated step), and walking with strength (fast walking, climbing).
It is recommended that you warm up first with a light walk, then accelerate and gradually change the pace every five minutes. This will speed up the work of the heart, which will encourage the burning of more calories.
Fat Burning
Fat can only be removed with the help of physical activity. 90% of fat is burned, in the presence of oxygen in the muscles. Therefore, there are very few benefits from omnipotent diets and consuming diuretics. To lose weight – you have to move.
Walking is more efficient than other types of sports activities because it gradually rids the body of fat. At an active load, carbohydrates burn to a greater extent. With heavier sports, you are more likely to force yourself to starve and be tired than to burn fat.
When you walk, hormones are released into the blood, which causes a feeling of satiety. In addition, the decomposed fat releases extra energy – and you already need less food, especially sweets.
With a constant reduced load, such as walking, you bring your body into a regime of burning fat and your body will say goodbye to extra pounds. “The more you weigh, the easier it’s going to be to drop pounds”- points out walking coach Michele Stanten.
Eating Habits
Walking for weight loss will give even better results if you combine it with a healthy and low-calorie diet. To lose weight, you need to reduce the number of calories you consume compared to the calories you burn. It is often stated that 1 kilogram of body weight is equivalent to 3,500 calories.
Based on this theory, you should reduce your calorie intake to 500 over 7 days to lose 1 pound per week. You can achieve part of this deficit by walking 1 hour a day, while at the same time you can gradually reduce the number of calories you consume.
We are busy looking for ways to lose weight unaware that it doesn’t have to be that hard. Sometimes it is not necessary to starve and dream of a good bite. We just need to get up and change our lifestyle.
