Walking is one of the easiest, safest and most enjoyable exercises known today. You don’t always need to go on a strict diet or struggle with heavy equipment at the gym to stay fit – Just head out of your house for a brisk walk and achieve your goal of losing unwanted weight.
How to Lose Weight by Walking?
Depending on how often you walk, you can manage to easily lose one pound of weight in a week.
Think about it, in less than five months you can be 20 pounds lighter without spending hours at the gym and without going on a diet. Isn’t it amazing? Once you learn how to implement the principles of walking to lose weight into your lifestyle, you will surely be hooked on this easy and beneficial exercise routine.
How Many Calories Can You Burn By Walking?
The number of calories you can burn by walking is determined by your body weight and walking pace. On average, if you walk at a pace of 4 miles per hour (a common pace) you will be able to burn roughly 400 calories.
You don’t necessarily need to go 4 miles a day. You can even walk a shorter distance than that and combine it with your daily schedule. You can also use a device called pedometer to help you burn extra calories while walking and doing your daily schedule.
A pedometer can help you in losing weight.
If you are trying to lose weight through walking, a pedometer can help you boost the chances of success for your efforts. Just wear it around the hip area and it will help in recording the number of steps you take during your workout or throughout your entire day.
In order to find out how many miles you need to cover to drop extra pounds, you need to find out how many you are currently covering. This way, you will know by how much you need to increase your steps, or distance each day in order to be able to see a difference in the number on the scale.
How Many Steps Do You Need To Walk To Lose Weight?
To lose weight, the average person needs to take about 2,000 steps in the average mile. One mile burns about 100 calories. So, simply add few steps to your daily routine.
- 1 Mile = 2112 steps
- 1 Mile walked = 100 calories burned
- 1 Pound = 3,500 calories
- 2 Pound weight loss per week = 7000 cal, or a 500 cal deficit/day
- To lose 1 pound of weight per week you need to add 10,000 steps to your day.
Remember that you don’t need to start from 10,000 steps. Start gradually and you will just lose less weight.
If 10,000 steps seems a lot to fit into your busy day, you can implement few ideas like – taking the stairs instead of the lift, walking the children to school, or parking your car further away from your destination.
What should be your Walking Style?
When walking for exercise, you will have to keep your chin up, focus your eyes about 10 feet forward, keep a long stride, pull in your abdomen towards your spine and squeeze your glutes. This style of walking will help you achieve maximum benefits from your workout.
How Often Should You Walk?
If you’re a beginner, start by walking 3 days per week for at least 15-20 minutes. Gradually increase the frequency and duration of your walks until you are walking 30-60 minutes per day, most days of the week.
To help keep your walks enjoyable try out different methods like watching television during your walks (using a treadmill), or listening to music or a book on tape with headphones.
Conclusion:
Make sure you visit your doctor before you start doing walking as an exercise. Consult him to know whether you are fit for it or not.