The biggest New Year resolution across the world is often weight loss. Gym memberships sell quickly and thousands of people embark on new diet routines in hopes to battle the bulge of their waistlines. However, there is something that you can do now without the costliness of an expensive gym membership or diet plan.
Walking might not be thought to aid in weight control and loss, however, fast-paced walking, combined with a healthy diet, is very effective for weight loss. Physical activities, such as walking, are crucial to losing weight and leading a healthy lifestyle. Moreover, walking can actually reduce your risk of depression and heart disease, but the key is how quickly you walk.
Fast-Paced Walking and Weight Loss
If you have not seen results from your daily walk it is likely that you need to increase your pace. Women who complete three 30 minute high-intensity walks in addition to two recovery walks at a moderate pace per week lose nearly six times more weight than participants who walk at slow paces each week. Power walkers can even drop four times total body fat than those who walk slowly. In women walkers, deep abdominal fat is the first type of fat to disappear from daily power walking.
How to Walk for the Greatest Weight Loss
Understanding how your walking pace affects caloric burn is the best way to ensure that you are maximizes the power of your workout. When you stroll at a window-shopping pace you are only burning about 240 calories per hour.
A brisk walk, or a pace where you can speak without pausing for a few moments at a time, can burn up to 340 calories per hour. However, if you want to maximize your caloric burn, power walking, or taking longer strides while using your arms to propel your body forward, can burn up to 570 calories per hour.
Walking with Pedometers for Weight Loss
Another excellent way to ensure that you are getting the most out of your daily walk is by tracking your workout with a pedometer or step counting application on your phone. To ensure that you are getting the most out of your workout, you should first track how much ground you are covering at your current walking pace.
This will allow you to see how much you need to increase your pace to maximize your weight loss. If you currently take 6,000 steps with your normal routine and you are not losing weight, then you should increase your pace so that you are covering more mileage in the same amount of time.
The Steps of Losing Weight
One mile can be achieve in roughly 2,000 steps and can burn around 100 calories. It takes roughly 3,500 calories burned to lose one pound of body fat. To healthily lose one pound per week, you should aim to be at a 500 calorie deficit each day. With a healthy diet this can be achieved by taking 10,000 steps.
If this seems intimidating consider adding these healthy walking routines to your current day: take the stairs instead of the elevator, park your car farther away from your destination, walk your children to school or walk to work, get off the bus early and walk the rest of the distance home.
Above all else, ensuring that you are walking at a quick pace is the most beneficial way to ensure that you are burning the most calories for your workout. Your fitness goals are obtainable in this New Year and you can achieve them one step at a time.
