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.
Jan
27
Step Up!
By now you will have found the best way to monitor the amount of higher intensity activity you are doing while walking to lose weight.
Using a pedometer which measures this you will also get a reading on the calories this activity has used. The calorie burn is satisfyingly high for this fast paced exertion.
Alternatively you are timing various exercises or activities and checking the appropriate chart to calculate the calories burned.
In summary from the 31 Ways to Lose Weight Walking:
1. Day 1- Start from where you are, working up over time to 10,000 steps per day average and a minimum daily level of 6,000.
2. Day 25 – earlier if possible, add in higher intensity walking/exercise to increase the regular calorie burn.
3. If higher intensity activity is not an option increase the daily steps up to 15,000. To do this use every opportunity to walk.
Jan
23
Comfort Food, Losing Weight
Overweight can have a lot to do with eating for comfort, a habit learned in childhood, for many people.
Weight loss can be an uncomfortable process.
Immediately a tension is created.
Often your success is determined by how well the Walking to Lose Weight process can be comforting for you. There are 2 aspects to this: the physical and self image.
Your Body
Your body is not you. It is a part of who you are but is a short term representation of the total you. As you are today is temporary. The cells in our bodies constantly change having varying life spans. Our hair and fingernails grow. The way your body looks is ever changing. If for some reason you are not satisfied with you body remember that change is happening. In minute details, if not more, your body has already changed for the good.
In walking to lose weight it is far easier to get started and to have less concern about the physical aspects of the process.
It is important to have the right and comfortable attire, especially shoes, and appropriate gear for outside conditions. Often these items are already in the wardrobe.
Weather is controllable by exercising inside or in a gym or other air conditioned environment.
The warm up and slow down with walking …is walking. Easily done.
Do people look silly walking? Not often.
The pace with which you start is up to you. It is not likely to damage your body by walking slowly if you are inactive or rehabilitating, and faster if you are basically fit.
The physical discomfort exercising does bring if you push your body, as is likely, must be bearable. Only experience will tell how much extra you can ask of it without running to the chocolate. Balancing this is a fine but important task for walking for weight loss.
Self Image
Self image is a major part of the 31 Ways to Losing Weight Walking journey. Through out this process you must retain a positive view of yourself. Often our focus moves to ways for you to find emotional support in maintaining the exercise and calorie reduction necessary.
It may surprise you to realise that by putting appropriate self or body appreciation along side the walking and calorie burning, it can expedite your success.
Comfort Zone
The stress caused by going outside your comfort zone threatens to send you back towards your reliable method of de-stressing: eating.
One way of expanding your comfort zone is a non-threatening walking or exercising process at home. This is where walking DVDs and the Wii Fit can be very helpful.
