Walking is proven exercise. Though not as intense a workout as more high impact activities such as aerobics, step or a light jog, walking is a great way to get the blood pumping and build up your tolerance to eventually achieve more vigorous exercise.
Now if you intend on walking an extra 15 minutes a day so you can have an ice cream, I advise you to put the cornetto down right away. A 15 minute steady paced walk is only going to burn off around 60 calories dependent on how much you weigh. It’s not a lot really is it, but take an hour of walking at a more moderate pace of let’s say 3mph and you are looking at approximately 350 calories burned, which isn’t bad and means you can probably have a half of that cornetto – but only once a week!
If your intention is to lose weight and you are not an avid exerciser and lead a relatively sedentary lifestyle, walking is a great way to start on the path to a trimmer you.
There is a popular statistic that walking 10,000 steps a day will help you lose weight if you maintain a healthy eating programme. This is about 5 miles a day, which is quite a lot if you work a regular 9 to 5 job, have to drive home in heavy traffic, cook tea and put the kids to bed.
Better advice is to aim for a certain amount of minutes of walking a week. To begin with, two one hour walks a week is a really good start, especially if you are not an exerciser. And given that you are not an exerciser, this is going to help you shift some pounds, though it will take a long time if you only maintain this amount of walking.
If you weigh 200lb and walk for 60 minutes twice a week at a moderate pace, you will burn approximately 800 calories that week. The key to weight loss is not to eat those extra calories and if you can, to try and cut down on your daily calorie intake, especially if you know it is too high. Just some small changes will help and this accompanied with the walking regime should help you start to feel trimmer, sooner.
So now you know how many calories just 2 walks a week can burn, likelihood is you have worked out that if you can walk a bit more everyday even just up and down stairs (at 200lbs, walking up and down stairs 5 minutes a day will burn around 61 calories) you are going to start burning extra calories everyday.
So if you burn 300 calories a day, then alter your eating habits to decrease calorie intake by 250 calories a day, that’s 550 calories a day lost which equals approximately 1.5 pounds a week. Add to that your two extra 60 minute walks and you could be looking at around two or three pounds a week which doesn’t sound like much but is in fact the safest amount of weight to lose a week so that you don’t risk putting it back on.
So there you have it, getting into a regular walking regime can certainly help you shift some pounds and is the best way to work yourself into a more vigorous workout. Just think, walking now, jogging in a few months and theLondon marathon next year!! It’s not out of the question and you’ve got to aim big. Enjoy the fresh air walking brings, the space it gives you to think or listen to music and most of all enjoy those lost inches!
