Walking to Lose Weight

Walking is a great exercise because almost anybody can do it. You don't need a home gym or gym membership, or a personal trainer. All that you need is someplace to walk, and you can walk most anyplace. A nice thing to do is to vary your walking routine, by having different walks. This will keep you from becoming board. If you don't want to go outside you can walk on a treadmill.

Anything that you can do to increase your total calories burned will help your weight loss. The nice thing about walking is that it will not starve you. You can still eat your regular amount of food and lose weight without feeling hungry.

When walking it is important to wear comfortable, non-binding clothes and a comfortable pair of walking shoes. To be accurate about how far you have walked, you might want to get a pedometer. Warming up before and cooling off afterwards is important to prevent injuries.

Walking burns 100 calories per mile that you walk. The faster you can walk, and the farther you can walk the more calories you can burn. If you can walk four miles per hour that is 400 calories in an hour. That is 400 calories you do not have to deprive yourself of to lose the weight.

If you can walk an hour a day at four miles and hour, that is approximately 12,000 calories in a month. That is almost a pound a week and almost 4 pounds a month. That is over 40 pounds in a year.

Add to that a reduction in empty calories by reducing soda consumption and you could easily lose 50 pounds in a year.

You don't have to do all this walking at once. You could take a two mile walk before going to work in the morning and another 2 mile walk at lunch or after work. Try and schedule in time for walking. This will make it easier to do if it is part of your regular routine. You can fit walking in while watching TV, try walking in place to burn off a few calories when you watch TV. Or treadmill walking while you watch TV.

The important thing about walking is the distance and not the time spend. You should commit to walking a specified distance each day. You can start small like a mile twice a day working up to your desired goal. That is only a half a mile each way.

It you are constrained for time and you are in good shape you could work up to running the distance instead of walking. You will still burn the same calories for the same distance, but you will be doing it faster. Running is more stressful on the body.

Try and find ways to fit walking to your daily routine. The more that you can incorporate it into your lifestyle, the easier it will be to reach your goal and keep the weight off after you have lost it.

In sum, walking is a great way to lose weight and not feel deprived. Almost anybody can do it. The more effort you put into it the more weight you will lose and the faster you will lose the weight. In addition to losing weight, walking is a great way to keep the weight off. Walking is a great cardiovascular exercise. Walking will help strengthen bones and tone your leg muscles. Walking is a great form of physical fitness that you can do from early childhood through your senior years.