Can walking to lose weight really be effective in helping you lose those unwanted pounds?

Walking cannot be an effective method of losing weight, can it? I know that when many people think of walking as a form of exercise, an image of older people strolling through a mall at 6 in the morning comes to mind. I mean it seems too easy. Well, don’t underestimate how good walking is in helping you lose that unwanted weight. Here are the answers to some questions you might have about walking.

Why is walking a good form of exercise?

The list of reasons walking is great exercise is long, so I’m not going to name them all, but here are a few good ones:

1. Walking is low impact. If an exercise is described as low impact, it means that it is gentle on the bones and joints. If you are just starting a new weight loss program, some exercises may be too strenuous for you at first. So walking is a good way to get up and start losing weight.
2. Walking is very affordable. If you want to walk to health, you don’t have to invest a lot of money. It doesn’t require an expensive gym membership or expensive exercise equipment that can end up taking up space in your home. All you really need is a pair of comfortable shoes, which you probably already own.
3. You can walk almost everywhere. No matter where you live – whether it’s a million dollar mansion in Beverly Hills, a rural farm in Idaho, or a basement apartment in the Bronx – you can walk to get in shape. Even if you are doing time in a 9 x 5 cell, you can walk instead. Whatever your location, you can start losing weight by walking.

How Much Weight Can I Really Lose By Walking?

This question really depends on how motivated you are in your weight loss goals. It’s amazing how great the results can be when you combine walking with a low calorie diet. There are many factors that contribute to the number of calories you can burn while walking. You must take into account your starting weight and how far and how fast you are walking. For example, in a graph of Medicine and science in sports and exercise a 200-pound person walking 2 miles per hour will burn about 114 calories per mile. Walking at a pace of 5 miles per hour, that number increases to 145 calories.

Now let’s do a little math. Based on those numbers, in a 30-minute walk a person weighing 200 pounds could burn between 114 and more than 360 calories (the number of calories burned depends on how fast the person walks). If you regularly walk for just 30 minutes a day, that’s potentially more than 130,000 calories a year. There are roughly 3,500 calories in a pound of fat, which means that in one year you could lose nearly 40 pounds just by walking. Those are amazing results from such a simple exercise. You can really increase the calories you burn if you increase your heart rate by incorporating some cardiovascular exercises into your walking routine.

Walking sounds like exercise to me, but how do I know how intense to start?

Well the first thing you should always do is talk to your doctor when starting a new fitness plan. If you get the green light from your doctor, then you are good to go. The great thing about walking is that it is very easy to set a custom level that works for you. Try to start by walking at a pace where you can still carry on a conversation but have a hard time singing. This may sound a bit silly, but it is a good way to judge how hard you are puffing and puffing.

In the beginning, try to focus more on the amount of time you walk at the beginning than on the distance; this way it is much easier to gradually increase your training. When you can walk comfortably for 30 minutes to 1 hour, you can slowly begin to increase your speed. Soon, those unwanted pounds will immediately melt away. It’s okay if you don’t have time to walk every day, just try to walk as often as you can. It could help you walk consistently if you create and commit to a schedule rather than just when you can find time.