Walking to lose weight: The Benefits of Walking

by Andrew Simmons

Walking is a fantastic low impact exercise that almost anyone can do, anywhere.  Many people have been conditioned to dread exercise due to being pushed by their sporting coaches, teachers at school and even their parents. Walking can generally be performed by people of all fitness levels and normally does not require any pre-existing skills, unless someone is recovering from injury. Going for a lower intensity walk over a long period of time can be a great fat burning cardio activity. It is weight bearing and uses large muscle groups to burn higher amounts of energy.  There also is a lower risk of injury.

On a personal note, whilst training for a natural body building competition, I achieved my best fat loss results from walking at a low intensity over a long period of time. Whilst I knew that I would burn more energy if I ran instead of walked, I knew that I could burn a high percentage of fat whilst I walked for a longer period. The most significant factor was that the lower intensity sessions reduced my hunger pangs and helped me to preserve my muscle tissue, which is an essential part of a long-term weight loss strategy. The old “no pain, no gain” mentality simply does not hold true.

Walking is good social form of exercise.  It can be done with friends, family, people of all ages.

The health benefits should not be underestimated too.  Many studies have found that regular walkers have lower death rate, lower risk for coronary artery disease, cancer, stroke and diabetes.

Some great tips to increase the amount of walking you do include:

• Walk to and from work, or to and from the train station
• Take a walk to and from the café at lunch time
• Park in the furthest parking spot from the shops
• Use the stairs at work instead of the escalators or elevator 
• Pace up and down at work whilst talking on the phone (with a cordless phone of course)
• Get out of your chair and go and talk to someone across the room rather than send them an email
• If you work in an office, each time you have to print something, go and get it straight away rather than waiting for multiple jobs to pile up

Remember: movement is the key.

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Fixing those pesky problem areas

Skipping

Nanna

Walking at a low intensity over a long period of time sounds a great idea, particularly as you found you could burn a higher proportion of fat this way.  Just how low did you mean - just social walk?, walk at a reasonable pace but just not power walk?  Or power walk but not run? And over what period of time do you recommend - an hour?  More?  Thanks, and enjoying the articles.
Rosalie

02 Jun, 2012 10:34:00 PM