One of the frustrations for walkers or runners is that a favorite route will go off road onto paths or byways which make the distance traveled when walking to lose weight difficult to tally. While a pedometer is an obvious answer, there is also the mapping software available at Running Map and Google GMaps Pedometer which is a similar system with the extra finesse of calculating calories burned as well.
Feb
9
Once you’ve started walking to lose weight and have actually remembered to do it regularly the best way to increase weight loss is to increase the calories burned walking, by adding variety with interval and power walking. However there are many ways to add to the calories burned and increase the other advantages which come from exercising your body.
Walking to lose weight outside offers the potential opportunity to do other exercises. Recently I was walking in a park with a friend-we were walking for weight loss as were many other people who were there-and discovered that the park had an outdoor gym with some interesting gym-type equipment. It was fun and added some more intense muscle exercises and a diversion to our walk.
When in a park or grassy area which lends itself to sport or activity it is more comfortable to do some exercises which wouldn’t look right in your suburban street. However you could do them at your house at the end of the walking for weight loss, or with the Wii.
My suggestion today is to add lunges -doing a set of 10 every half mile or 500 meters. They could be walking lunges or stationary.
Always allow your body particualry the leg muscles to warm up before lunging, and if you haven’t done them for a while or are new to them start gently and judge how your legs are coping before intensifying.
For far too many years I couldn’t ‘do’ lunges. For some reason the lunge fairy hadn’t stood on my shoulder and sprinkled the fairy dust and I reluctantly lunged. In case you had the same errors in your thinking as I did I will pass on my new way of doing lunges which now gets me rated as ‘very good’.
To lunge:
Stand with your feet slightly apart and take one leg back behind, with the heel of this foot off the ground and the toes on the ground and flexed, balancing and taking the weight.
The front knee must not come over the toes when bent so move the back leg further back if this is the case.
The ‘lunge’ is bending the front knee as the back knee moves towards the ground.
Stability comes from the placement of the back leg- not too close or they are impopssible to do, or too far back and balance is lost. Try until you can keep balanced while doing the lunge down and back up.
Don’t worry if your back knee doesn’t seem to go too far down at first. Unless you have a mirror it is hard to tell just how far you are getting that back knee down.
Walking to Lose Weight Hints:
1. The important leg in this exercise is the back one. Focus on dropping that back knee rather than bending the front one.
2. When taking the leg back, think ‘balance’ rather than taking a direct line backwards. It may be easier for you to take your back foot off line a few inches. Avoid going so far as to require your body to twist when you are lunging.
Aug
18
For most of us the connection between the food eaten and the calories it contains, the exercise we do and the energy used, is less than clear. If walking is a wonderful weight loss exercise and only 10 minutes twice a day causes us to lose weight it really can’t be that difficult to get the whole diet issue under control. Yet walking uses only 300 calories an hour as a generous estimate, less for a 60 kg woman. Aerobic or power walking could use 400 calories in the same time.
Can using an extra 100 calories daily lose weight when we know that a pound of fat is made up of 3500 calories?
Yet it does. Over time, and more quickly than these figures suggest.
Sometimes it can be easy.
Other times it takes a combined effort of diet and extensive exercise.
There is a magical process which works to make the calories in and out equation more productive than it looks from this information.
It occurs when a number of aspects of diet and movement, metabolism and body chemistry combine in such a way that weight loss occurs quicker than the simple burning of calories suggests.
All things being equal the benefit of calories burned through exercise is more than simply a withdrawal from the fat bank account but the increased metabolic rates and standing body rates of ongoing life support.
Knowing too much can be discouraging and irrelevant unless you are selectively using monitoring of behaviour rather than results.
The connection between food and calories made by recording food and calories eaten can be insightful and effective.
The connection to exercise is more problematic-it has more than a calories burned impact, dependng on the type of exercise it can effect metabolism as muscle uses more energy for maintenance than fat. And walking for weight loss can provide a way of feeling in control. it offers a solution after the horse has bolted i.e. having overeaten then walking can ameliorate the guilt or physical affects in addition to the calories burned walking.
Recording pedometer steps helps motivation towards achievement of a target such as 10,000 daily steps. It allows the user to become conscious of their movement and liable to add extra when possible. For eating the recording of food as it is eaten becomes a means of avoiding unconscious eating.
Aug
8
While I have tended to use Walk Away the Pounds as a backup for those difficult times when bad weather or being tied to home for business or personal reasons has left me short of the time for an effective walk, today has started the process of more consistent and purposeful use of this wonderful walking to lose weight resource.
This is because of the use of weights and the more thorough exercise in the DVDs’ guided calorie burning approach to power walking from Leslie Sansone.
To explain more, anyone who has been following my progress with walking for weight loss on this blog will know that I love walking outdoors for this purpose. However this is a lifestyle which can be modified. That is I have changed my life in subtle ways (huge for me but not that obvious to others) to continue the process of controlling my weight and looking and feeling as good as I can. In the year that I have been writing and walking for weight loss I have lost over 20 pounds! The main weight loss tool has been the calories burned walking, starting with tracking the distance and number of steps, and finishing with a routine daily walk of one hour.
The purpose of this weight loss program has been to tame the thoughtless process of excess weight and lack of activity which has contributed to my up and down weight gains all my life-until now! This last year has provided stimulation and focus on exercise and a restricted eating and low calorie diet. Calories have not been reduced substantially, just enough fuel to both exercise comfortably and lose weight with less calories taken in and the calories burned walking, ensuring the energy to continue working, playing and exercising.
Now as I continue on this weight loss process I also want to add some upper torso work and strengthening, as well as toning of those areas which need it, such as the abs. in the past I have found a similar pattern to that of other weight loss processes when doing weights and specific exercise programs-getting totally enthusiastic and enjoying wonderfully fast results, without any long term plan for continuing a toning program to keep these muscles looking their best.
Activity based weight control requires a lifestyle change and continual change as your needs change. Progress in weight loss in particular is the best reason for making additions to the walking for weight loss formula. Now I want to tighten and tone my muscles as well as strengthening them. This time though I am introducing weights and other exercises in a similar manner to when I re-introduced walking for weight loss. It is a lifestyle adjustment which, having allowed to build into my every day or weekly schedule, becomes a benefit in many other ways as well.
Starting weights at full pace will divert my energy away from other areas of my life and perhaps even weight loss. Additional and more intense exercise will be tiring and may result in some soreness. This can be a distraction from my goals. The easy and slow introduction of new muscle uses ensures a controllable adjustment in lifestyle which has long term benefits for ongoing weight control.
Walk Away the Pounds DVD">Walk Away the Pounds provides water-filled weights which are easy to use and a great introduction to using weights if you haven’t used them before, have had a long lay off or have hand problems. They weigh about 400 grams each so this is not a long term solution if you wish to tone your arms but are a great way to start. I use my own hand weights which are heavier and certainly most men would need to use heavier weights for effective exercise. In addition the various leg lifts and other exercises used in the 3 miles walk (and the 1 and 2 miles) are a vigorous workout- much harder than walking the equivalent distance!
So I am increasing the intensity of my exercise by making Walk Away the Pounds a standard part of my walking for weight loss.
