walking to lose weight - GrandmaBetsyBell

Gentle Reader,

My thanks to an article forwarded to me by a friend. My strategy for maintaining my goal weight all these years has been to walk everyday. I am delighted to pass on this analysis of how much walking it takes to lose weight. Takes the guess work out of it.

From your current weight to your ideal weight: walk

One of the harmless forms of exercise nowadays is walking. You can lose one pound per week or more, dependent on how often you walk. Just by walking to lose weight, you can lose more than 20 pounds in five months without going to the gym or going on a weight loss diet.

You can tone your muscles and improve your health while shedding pounds and inches from your body. You will love this easy and beneficial exercise routine once you learn how to implement the principles of walking to lose weight into your life.

How to Lose Weight by Walking

The number of calories that can be burn with walking depends on your body weight and walking pace. Normally if you walk at a speed of 4 miles per hour (regular speed) you can burn around 400 calories each hour.

Four miles a day added to your regular life will probably give you 10,000 steps and burn 400 calories. But other combinations work well, too. For example, if you walk 3 miles, you can burn extra 300 calories per day. Also you can walk a shorter distance, just combine it with your schedule. There is a device called pedometer to help you to burn some extra calories while walking and doing your daily plan.
I found several on the web from very expensive to moderately priced. I plan to order this one.

Pedometers and Weight Loss

If you are attempting to get in shape with walking, one of the best things that you can do to help to increase the chances for your efforts is to go out and purchase a quality pedometer or a wrist band that can track your everyday exercises.

Pedometer is a useful gadget that you place on your outfit close to your hip region. It is light weight and has several features. The important feature is checking the quantity of steps you take during your workout and throughout your day.

If you want to find out how many miles you need to lose extra pounds, you have to figure out how many you are currently covering. Get a base line to determine how many steps you must add to lower the number when you step on the scale.

So, if you take 8,000 steps with your current routine and daily habits and stuck at an undesirable weight, the quantity of steps that you have to add is just an question of math; increase your mileage according to how many calories you need to burn (more details on that below).

How Many Steps to Lose Weight?

An average person needs to take about 2.000 steps a mile to lose weight. For each mile – burn 100 calories. The pedometer will keep track of your steps, how many calories you burn and how many miles you walk daily. To increase your weight loss, you simply add steps to your daily routine.

1 Mile = 2.000 steps and 100 calories burned
1 Pound = 3.500 calories
Lose 1 Pound weight per week = 500 calories daily.
You need to take 10.000 steps daily to lose 1 pound per week.

Here are ways to fit the walking in your busy day if 10,000 steps sounds like a lot (you don’t need to start from 10,000 steps. Start slowly – you will lose less weight at first)

Get off the bus and walk the rest of the way to work or to home.
Park the car far away from your destination and walk the distance.
You can walk to the station instead of taking bus or car.
Don’t use elevators or escalators, take the stairs instead
Walk the children to school.

You can keep track of the number of pounds you lose or how many calories you burn, depending what kind of pedometer you have. This data helps you stay informed regarding your advancement by giving you a reasonable picture of what you have physically accomplished with your walk.

Because of the critical elements recorded you will want to buy a decent quality pedometer (like this one which is moderately priced) to guarantee each step is checked. As indicated by the American Medical Association, wearing a pedometer is crucial to long haul weight control and effective weight reduction.

How to Keep it Interesting

Keep your routine interesting and switch thing around, because walking the same old track can be boring.
Walk outside at different areas, parks, neighborhoods, or listen some music to enjoy, motivate and energize you to finish the daily walking.
Don’t stop with your daily walk because of cold winter weather. Buy a treadmill and put it in front of a television or window. You can enjoy in nature with looking through windows during walking, or savor every minute of your favorite show in front of television.
You can invite friend or a family member to join you. Even if they walk with you once in a week, it is still good way to mix up your daily routine. You can be bored with same old routine, even if you are dedicate walker. Don’t let this happen to you.
Switch up your routine and keep it interesting.

Walking Style

We all know how to walk and have been doing so since we were a little kid. And throughout the years bad stance and habits may have made you to have less desirable walking standards.

When you are walking for exercise you will focus your eyes about 100 feet forward, keep your chin up, and pull in your abdomen towards your spine. Keep a “fluffy butt” to avoid back strain. This walking style can help you to achieve the maximum from your workout.

How Often to Walk

Before starting with this daily routine it’s a good idea to check in with your primary physician. When you have the go-ahead, you might want to start walking three days per week for 15 to 20 minutes. Then you will increase the frequency until you are walking 30 to 60 minutes a day, every day of the week.

You will be happy to know that this exercise is the best things you can do to lose weight. You can lose 88 pounds in one year without going on a special weight loss diet.

I want to add a couple comments to this piece. I have suffered from severe sciatic pain in the last months which has curtailed my daily walking. When hiking with sticks, I do not have sciatic pain. My strong upper body is lifting the weight off my lumbar spine and allowing the sciatic nerve room to travel down my leg. Even though it feels embarrassing to walk around the neighborhood with hiking sticks, I have been doing just that. I am not willing to lose my fitness level because of vanity!

Recent stories show treadmills in office settings. At Zillow , for example, employees are encouraged to sign up to work at a desk mounted on a treadmill. People report that they can get their emails answered while walking at a rate of 2.4 mph. Spending 30 minutes doing this twice a day combines one of those necessary work tasks with exercise. They even have a conference room with two treadmills so people can conduct and “walk and talk” meeting. It takes a little getting used to. If you work at home, consider this addition to your home office. A lot of us sit most of the day. This would be an efficient way to increase your walking to lose weight, keep your fitness level where you want it, or simply change the scenery.