If you’ve gained extra pounds during lockdown, why not try brisk walking? It’s a moderate form of exercise with a raft of health benefits that can help you achieve your weight loss goals and more in 2021.
Your fitness efforts can be enhanced by combining regular brisk walking exercise with a healthy and nutritious diet.
While calorie counting and cutting down on portion size are crucial to kick-starting weight loss, cranking up your walking to a moderate pace – and adding some power-walking intervals – encourage your body to burn fat faster.
It is possible to lose an average of 3lbs by walking briskly for the equivalent of 30 minutes every day. The amount of weight you lose will vary from one person to the next, the speed and distance you walk together with gradients.
However, of the recommended 7,500 steps a day that help you maintain good health, 3,000 steps taken at a brisk pace will help you shift excess weight.
Healthline has published a calorie burn v walking pace guide that will give you a rough estimate of how much bulge you can burn.
Up Your Steps To Increase The Burn
To expend the energy from the food fuel that you consume, at a safe and healthy pace, it’s recommended that you increase your daily footfalls.
- Maximise the calorie burn and shift abdomen and hip flab by walking briskly for just 30 minutes a day.
- Boost your weekly brisk walking calorie expenditure by accelerating and decelerating your speed, and alternating the incline of the walking surface.
- Walking uphill expends far more energy than covering the distance on a flat surface.
The best time in the day for brisk walking is first thing in the morning. When you wake up, your body is already in the optimal calorie deficit zone to activate its natural fat-burning process.
As glycogen levels drop while you slumber, your body will use up body fat as a source of energy, and therefore lower your body fat percentage.
High-Intensity Walking For Weight Loss
To achieve your weight loss goals faster, you need to commit to at least 20-30 minutes of high-intensity walking on 3 non-consecutive days per week.
You can reduce the intensity of your walking workout, on the days in between, to a moderate pace level.
Brisk walking for weight loss can easily be incorporated into your daily routine when you’re at home during the lockdown.
Leaving the car at home and walking to work or running an essential errand helps. Always taking the stairs instead of elevators and escalators can quickly rack up the step count.
Additional Health Benefits of Brisk Walking
When you pick up the pace on a brisk walk, not only are you burning up calories that result in weight loss, but you’re also helping to prevent the development of type II diabetes, osteoporosis, heart and chronic disease.
Health problems like high blood pressure and depression and anxiety can also be reduced.
And because walking briskly has a calming and relaxing effect on the nerve cells in the brain, and retrains your body’s metabolic rate, you won’t crave the fatty and sugar-packed high-calorie foods and snacks that pile on the pounds.
