Lose Weight Naturally By Walking – Not Strolling!

June 3, 2009 by admin

Did you know that you can lose a great deal of weight just by taking a long walk – not strolling! – every day? You don’t need a costly gym membership and you also don’t need a lot of experience to lose weight. Best of all, you don’t have to take any slimming pills or stay on a special diet either.

Walking is the safest form of exercise and nearly all people can at least take a walk around the block every day. There are many overweight people, especially persons who have problems like arthritis, who have already experienced the benefits of walking.

The idea is to have a brisk walk at a pace that gets your heart rate going. The fact is that you won’t lose much weight by just ambling or strolling along. You need to get sweaty for this or you will not be optimizing how much you can lose. It is possible to lose weight by walking slow but it will take ages. You need to walk at a rapid pace and keep it up for at last an hour. The faster your heart pumps the more weight you will lose.

The secret is — the more you walk the more lean muscle you will develop. The more lean muscle you have, the more calories you burn, since lean muscle burns more calories as you use it.

A pound of fat equals 3500 calories, which means that in order to lose one pound a week you will need to burn of 3500 calories. When it comes to losing weight it is the amount of distance that you cover that matters. Walking for a long time at a slow pace will not do much for your weight loss efforts.

So how much weight can you lose by walking?

You can expect to lose at least one pound a week by walking at a moderate pace for at least a half an hour to an hour a week. Not only is walking the best thing for shedding pounds but it can also help prevent other disorders such as heart disease, colon cancer, diabetes, stroke and breast cancer. Another bonus is that walking can help keep your immune system in good working order.

If you are not used to exercising you might want to take it easy when you first start. Take care not to overdo it if you are in recovery from an illness or operation. In fact it is a really good idea to get checked out by a doctor before you begin any kind of exercise program – including a regimen to walk your weight off.

When you first start out, take it easy if you are not used to exercising. Be careful and don’t overdo it, especially if you are in recovery from an operation or an illness. In such cases it is always highly recommended to see a doctor for a check out before you start any kind of exercise program.