How Long Should You Walk To Lose Weight?
Walking is an excellent way to get started on your weight loss program, but how long should you walk? There are a lot of variables with this question:
- What is your weight now?
- What is you physical condition?
- How much weight do you want to lose?
- How fast do you want to lose it?
Before you begin any exercise program, you should talk to your doctor. Make sure that you are healthy enough to begin a vigorous exercise program, even brisk walking. Leisurely walking is a good start, but for weight loss you will have to pick up the pace.
You have to burn 3500 calories to lose 1 pound. That means that you need to burn 500 calories each day or reduce your intake and burn a combination of 500 calories. If you walk briskly for 60 minutes, you will burn approximately 500 calories. If you walk at a slower pace, you will burn approximately 200 calories.
Before you begin any weight loss program you need to start with a plan that is realistic. You need to pick a diet that you will stick to or decide to start eating healthy. Eating healthy means eating plenty of fruits and vegetables and staying away from processed foods. Eat lean meat and stay away from fast food.
A good way to think of healthy eating is to just shop on the outside isles of your grocery store. There you will be buying fresh vegetables and fruit, dairy products and meat. The center isles of the grocery stores contain mostly processed food.
Weight loss also requires controlling your appetite. You can learn more by checking our Effortless Appetite Control here.
Tags: appetitie control, effortless appetite control, weight loss
Good post, Coach. We also did some research on walking as an exercise, and were surprised that even small amounts of exercise were a good place to start. A steady caloric deficit (ideally coming from both diet and exercise) will build up over time, and the pounds will come off.
Another suggestion may be to switch around the exercise routine so that it does not get boring. Rather than doing the same routine day-in, day out, switching around keeps things interesting. Instead of simply walking around the block, hiking in a regional park would add some variety. Or, biking. The bottom line is that a moderate increase in activity helps to induce a deficit in calories, which helps with weight control.
Jason Chen,
<a href="http://www.20bmi.com/diet"www.20bmi.com
Brilliant article and I agree 100% that walking for 1 hour a day can make an enormous difference. I’ve seen it in myself and members of my family where other forms of exercise have failed (too expensive or too demanding).