Walking is a simple and accessible Exercise that most people can do. It is likewise one of the easiest physical activities that can greatly help enhance one’s overall health. But, can it really help you lose weight?
Numerous people would probably love to hear the answer to this question, given the popularity of weight loss concerns these days. Many people aim to lose weight for varying reasons, and it is definitely good to know that there is a very easy easy way to achieve their ideal body size.
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Can Walking Help You Lose Weight?
The answer depends on how long and intense you do it and the diet you incorporate with it.The truth is dietary changes tend to help more in weight loss compared to doing physical activities, but that doesn’t mean the latter doesn’t lay an important role in controlling one’s weight. As for walking, adding a 30-minute walk to your daily activities could help you burn around 150 Calories per day.
Take note that you should eliminate 500 calories each day to lose one pound a week. Apparently, the more and faster you walk, the more calories you eliminate. Generally speaking, longer and more intense exercise allows you to burn more calories.
However, see to it that you don’t overdo it; for doing so may increase your risk of injury, soreness, and burnout. If this is your first time to try regular exercise, start with light intensity then eventually build up to moderate or vigorous.
The moment you lose weight is the moment exercise becomes more important. This is because it helps maintain your weight and prevent weight gain. Numerous studies suggest that people maintaining their weight loss engage in regular physical activities.
How does Walking Help in Weight Loss?
Walking is an effective way to lose belly fat and those unwanted pounds. How is it possible?
It burns calories.
As you know, being physically active enables one to burn more calories. Depending on your weight and sex, you can burn 100 calories by just walking a mile. And although running obviously burns more, it actually burns only about 23 more calories for each mile.
Should you want to eliminate more calories, it will help to walk on routes with slight inclines.
It burns belly fat.
Did you know that too much fat around the midsection could increase your risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes? Men whose waist circumference is greater than 102 cm (40 inches) and women whose waist circumference is greater than 88 cm (35 inches) have abdominal obesity, one of the health risks that you should definitely avoid.
Good thing you can reduce your belly fat by taking part in aerobic exercises, which include walking.One study has shown that obese women were able to lose 1.5 percent of their body fast and reduce the circumference of their waist by 2.8 cm (1.1 inches). Other studies have produced similar results.
It helps preserve muscles.
Oftentimes, people who consume less calories and lose weight also lose muscles alongside body fat. This is where the importance of exercise comes in. It is effective in preserving the lean muscles when one loses weight.
This means you can decrease your metabolic rate drop during weight loss and maintain your results a lot easier. Also, not losing your lean muscles allows you to retain more strength and function.
It helps maintain weight loss.
This is in relation to the previous item. Apart from helping you increase the energy you burn each day, exercise also helps you build more muscles that would allow you to burn more calories.
Should you lose a lot of pounds, you can avoid regaining them by doing some exercise for 200 minutes each week. Through regular walking, you won’t be one of those people who lose weight and end up gaining it back.
Losing weight has various aspects; hence its numerous requirements. From burning calories to preserving your lean muscles and maintaining weight loss, simply walking regularly can truly do wonders.
Other Great Effects of Walking
Apart from improving your physical well-being, walking can likewise do the same to your mental health.
It helps improve one’s mood.
Numerous studies have shown that walking and other physical activities contribute a lot in decreasing negative feelings like anxiety, stress, and depression. Exercise makes the brain more sensitive to serotonin and norepinephrine, hormones that help release endorphins.
It motivates you to continue working out.
Having an improved mood allows you to enjoy a physical activity. If it happens, then you are more likely to continue doing it.
As you know, people have the tendency to exercise less if they don’t like what they are doing. Oftentimes, this happens when you engage in certain exercises that are too physically demanding. As for walking, it is a moderate-intensity type of exercise; therefore, it is more likely to make you feel motivated to walk more.
When starting a fitness journey, it is important to consider the mental aspect of your health as well. Incorporating it with thephysical aspect will definitely yield great results.
How Should You Start Walking as an Exercise?
With the benefits of walking, it indeed pays to incorporate it into your lifestyle. There are various ways to increase the amount of walking you do. Some are as follows:
- Do some brisk walking during lunch breaks or after dinner.
- Have a fitness tracker where you can log your steps.
- If you have a pet, walk it everyday.
- Do some errands like going to the store or taking your children to school.
- Have some walking buddies.
Doing these and a lot more simple things can help you gradually increase the amount of your daily walk.
Conclusion
Indeed, walking is the easiest yet a truly effective exercise you can do to eliminate those unwanted fats and pounds and to enhance your overall health. It is an underestimated physical activity that could benefit your well-being in various aspects including improvement of your mental health. If you really want the best for your body, invest some time and exert a little effort to increasing the amount of walking that you do each day.
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