Walking Program to Lose Weight

If you're looking for a simple walking program to lose weight fast and easy, check this out. This simple walking program might be the one you need.

1. Track and record your weight each Saturday morning - you can choose any day you wish, as long as you are consistent on when you weight yourself.
2. Learn further about losing weight, metabolism, aerobics, aerobic exercise and how they affect the body and calories. Find out what is the ideal body weight for your height, so you can adjust your daily calorie intake. Calculate your ideal body weight now.
3. Find a good pair of walking shoes. Invest on a pedometer to help you track your distance and improve it step by step. You need to walk at least 10,000 steps a day to lose weight. 10,000 steps are equal to five miles.
4. When walking, walk briskly and swing your arms. Increase the walking distance until you can do a mile, then a mile and a half, and so on and so on until you reach your goal weight. If perform your walking exercise in the morning before you take your first meal of the day. Walking on an empty stomach can help to burn more fat.
5. As a start, try to walk one mile a day, every day, for the first month.
6. The second month you can increase your walking distance to one and a half miles a day. Increase your walking speed too when applicable.
7. Continue this pattern of increasing the distance by one-half mile until you're up to six miles per day. Six miles a day may be a bit extreme, so you may want to adjust your walks accordingly. But try to make it up to at least 5 miles or 10,000 steps a day.
8. After you lost some pounds e.g. 100 pounds, you can scale back to four miles a day.
9. Continue to walk four miles every day even though you've reach your ideal body weight. This is a lifelong commitment, so don't stop after reaching your goal weight. Further reading: How Many Miles to Walk to Lose Weight Quickly?
10. You still can eat the stuff you loved, just adjust it to the amount you can get away with.

If you really don't have the time to follow the above walking program to lose weight, you can also lose one pound a week by upping your activity level by 500 calories a day. This way, you don't have to break your daily routines in order to lose weight. Moreover, this is a terrific weight loss exercise without you even noticing the extra effort. How easy is that to do? Take a look:

1. Get moving - walk to the store instead of driving.
2. Replace coffee breaks with exercise breaks.
3. Use half of your lunch break to take a brisk walk with a co-worker.
4. A 30 minutes of leisurely stroll every day is also great to strengthen your legs and heart while burning some calories in the process. This way, you're losing weight by walking slowly.
5. Walk or take the stairs instead of an elevator.
6. Parking the car far away from every place you visit can mean a lot of extra walking. Once you do it enough, it will become an almost unconscious habit.
7. When a commercial come on TV, get up and stretch or better yet, move around. Just avoid the kitchen.
8. Tap your feet in the air. Think of an upbeat song and tap along. This helps get your blood flowing.
9. Hide all your remote controls so you have to get up and change the channels manually. Do things like fetching, turning things off and on by yourself.
10. When talking on the phone, get up and pace. Just vary your walking area. You don't want to wear a path in your carpet.
11. Walking the dog can be great exercise for you and the dog. It's also a good way to meet new people.
12. Navigate your neighborhood: incorporate a walk into your daily routine.
13. Find out what you can do differently to get more exercise. You might walk the children to school or bike to work. Do you zap a frozen dinner in the microwave and then sit down to do nothing? As a replacement you can cook a wholesome, delicious meal and get some exercise in the process running around preparing it.
14. And don't forget about involving your family in exercise as well. Find an indoor playing center, with a playground and various activities. Or, shoot hoops in the backyard with your kids or by yourself. If you don't want to miss a football game on television, tape the game or listen in on the radio.
15. Since television can be a huge obstacle to exercise, here's another way to work around this problem. The next time you decide to watch a video or a television program, don't sit down. Instead, get up and do aerobics while you watch.

Losing Weight by Walking – FAQ

This article gives answers to some frequently asked questions on losing weight by walking, I hope you find it interesting to read and beneficial.

Do I really have to exercise in order to lose weight?
You don't have to, but it will be a lot harder to lose weight if you don't. A half hour of moderate exercise daily is the minimum activity level for healthy weight loss. You can get it walking, running, cleaning your house - anything active burns calories. The best exercise for the purpose of fat-loss is fast walking either indoors on the treadmill or outdoors. Walk until you are mildly puffing and hold that rate until the allotted time.

What is so great about accommodating walking in daily routine?

1. Losing weight by walking is easy, safe and very natural.
2. It can be done anywhere.
3. It only cost you a good pair of walking shoes and comfortable clothes.
4. It suits for people of all ages and all levels of health.
5. There’s no complicated technique to learn or equipment to buy.
6. The risk of injuries is pretty low.
7. It helps to burn fat and to keep weight under control when done properly.
8. It increases bone mass, which protects against osteoporosis and bone fractures.
9. It strengthens and tones the lower body especially when done on an inclined surface.
10. It uses nearly all the muscles thus it’s an excellent way to get fit.
11. It reduces the risk of developing serious health problems like diabetes, osteoporosis (brittle bones), and heart diseases.
12. It also reduces stress and depression and increases the sense of well being.

How the body draw fat store vs. other stored energy stored?

1. Your body needs energy to exercise, move and perform many activities. During your activities or any form of exercise, cells oxidize to release energy thus burn fat from the body. If the exercise is performed slowly to moderately then most of the energy is drawn from the fat stores.
2. The loss of fat comes from fat cells all over the body, not from one or more specific area’s such the belly, arms or thighs so spot reduction of a certain area is not possible.
3. Losing weight by walking requires long-term consistency not intensity. This is the key to effective walking that helps you lose the most weight and burns off the maximum amount of your fat stores. It doesn’t matter if you run a mile, jog a mile or walk a mile you will burn exactly the same amount of calories. But compared to other form of exercises, walking is still the best exercise to help you lose weight since it’s very easy to do.

Does daily walking help to lose weight?
Daily walking at a continuous pace not only boost your energy level, but also reduces your weight. It’s the best minimal effort exercise for fat loss. You should walk at particular distance or duration in order to maintain the proper health and control weight. You can burn 2,000-3,500 (equivalent to 1 pound of fat) extra calories a week by walking 10,000 steps a day.

Does walking for 30 minutes every day enough for weight loss?
If you’re only a little overweight, walking for a minimum of 30 minutes every day certainly will result in better health, a greater level of energy as well as producing some weight loss. However, losing weight by walking 30 minutes a day won't be enough for seriously overweight people. If you’re one of them, you probably won’t create a sustained, permanent weight loss you need with only walking 30 minutes a day.

So, how to lose weight by walking and how to walk for more effective weight loss?
In order to get the most effective returns from your walking, there’s a little tweaking you can do:

• Because of the way in which the body use fat store vs. other stored energy sources, the first step will be to increase your walking time. You don’t have to walk an hour a day, six or seven times a week instead you can increase your walking exercise to 45 or 60 minutes two or three times a week. This will help you lose more weight than just keeping all walks at 30 minutes.
• Another trick is to increase the speed with which you walk on the days that you do not walk more than 30 minutes. Build up your walking pace slowly to new levels of exertion. And remember, no walk should introduce extreme difficulty in breathing
• You can also incorporate resistance training into your walking routine, such as with free weights, or equipment such as a Bowflex or similar exercise apparatus. This builds muscle tissue and helps you burn more calories even in a resting state. Studies show that weight training can increase your metabolism overnight by 5 to 10 percent. Working out can increase your metabolism for up to 21 hours after an intense workout.

Extra tips: Measure your body fitness level with Omron body fat monitor and scale to help you stay on track.

But, I don’t have 60 minutes of spare time every day to do the walking exercise?
If it’s not possible to extend your walking time, you can split your walking exercise, you can do two 30 minute walks in a day or four 15 minutes walks a day to get nearly the same benefit.

What is the walking speed for weight loss and how to perform it properly?
For a proper walking style to get the most out of your exercise you can read Walking Speed for Weight Loss.

How much I need to walk in order to lose weight?
It is now recommended to complete 10,000 - 15,000 steps a day for losing weight by walking. The heavier you’re and the faster you walk, the more calories can be burned in one hour. The number of steps completed would depend on one's stride length. You can learn more about this in this article - Walking 1, 3 to 5 miles a Day to Lose Weight