Walking for Weight Loss
Walking is one of the easiest and most effective ways to exercise for weight loss. Many doctors recommend walking as part of an easy exercise program that is suitable and safe for most people to do. You can exercise with little equipment and you can walk indoors or outdoors.
Walk for an Hour a Day
If you want to walk for weight loss, you should walk a minimum of one hour a day at a moderate speed. It is okay if you break up that hour up into six segments of ten minutes or four segments of fifteen minutes or two segments of thirty minutes each. You can walk around the block, the mall or around your own house. If you need motivation, it can help to involve a friend. You can time yourself, use a pedometer or you can buy walking tape exercise programs that will help you get into an easy routine of taking regular walks.
Walk Faster for Calorie Burning
As for speed, it seems that whatever your speed is when you are walking, it will have a benefit. Walking slowly has its health benefits and can affect weight loss. Researchers are saying that it burns calories to walk slower because when walking fast, you build up a bit of a bounce and momentum that acts as a spring for each step. Walking slowly means that with each step, you are giving your muscles more of a workout. Walking faster will burn more calories when compared to walking slowly over the same distance.
In a study of the different effects of walking speeds on the body, it was found that walking faster generated the secretion of a growth hormone that is associated with bone and tissue regeneration and that walking slowly created heightened insulin sensitivity and built endurance. Both contribute to your cardiovascular health, which is a great reason to walk at any speed.
Walking is such a natural movement that it is easy to forget that a simple walking program can help you to reach your weight loss goals. You can add a walking program to your daily life for weight control and weight loss. The bonus is that you will improve your cardiovascular system and overall health with regular walks.
Filed under: Excercise
