Walking for Weight Loss: What You Should Know

While there are many benefits to walking aside from just losing weight, there is no
mistaking this added health benefit. If you want to lose weight by eating right and adding
in some more exercise, walking is a great choice. It is good for beginners, can be
completely free, and is really easy to start doing.

Here are some things to know if you plan to begin a walking routine to help you lose
weight.

Know How Much You Walk Now

Before you begin to walk in order to lose weight, start becoming aware of how much you
walk now. Turn on the pedometer on your phone and carry it everywhere with you, or
get a fitness tracker to wear throughout the day. Don’t try to walk more or get in more
exercise during this process; try to have the same lifestyle you have always had, and
just see what it says at the end.

After about a week or so, look at your stats. If you were using a fitness tracker with an
app, it should have been keeping track of each day. This will show you about what your
activity level is, and how much it varies by the day. This is going to help you know
where to start.

If you tended to have about 30 minutes of active walking a day, aside from your regular
tasks, then you know to lose weight, you should increase it to maybe 60 minutes of
walking a day. If you were getting an average of 3,000 steps a day, try to double it to
6,000 steps a day and see how that helps.

Track the Calories Burned

Another reason getting a fitness tracker is a great option is because it will tell you
exactly how many steps you talk or minutes you walked, compared to the food you ate.
Since so much of weight loss relies on a calorie deficit, this is really important. You do
need to track your food intake for this to be accurate, but that can be done digitally with
an app that connects to your fitness tracker, making it even easier to do.

Burn More Fat with Incline and Speed

When you get more accustomed to your walking routine, it is time to step it up a little. If
you want to burn more calories and fat during each workout, it requires increasing your
speed and/or incline. Do this gradually so you don’t get burnt out or have trouble
completing your walking routine. Try increasing the incline just to 2 or 3 at first, do that
for a few days, then increase your speed. Go back and forth and keep pushing yourself
to see how it changes the calories burned.

Add in Other Forms of Exercise

While walking alone can still burn calories to help you lose weight, you will have faster
progress when you add in other forms of workouts as well. Weight training is great and
can be done in a gym or at home with free weights and/or a kettlebell. You can add in
some resistance training like yoga or Pilates, or take a local fitness class for a little
variety.