Walking provides numerous benefits, including increased fitness, bone strength, and relief from joint pain. It can also benefit mental wellness. Walking can also help you lose fat.
Walk to Burn Fat
There are two ways to burn more fat while walking. The first requirement is that you walk at a fast and intense pace to burn fat as energy. The longer you walk, the more fat you burn. While any activity can burn calories, brisk walking and other aerobic workouts are particularly effective at burning internal belly fat, known as visceral fat. This type of fat expands your waistline and increases your risk of diabetes and heart disease.
What is the Fat Burning Zone?
Working out at a low to moderate intensity will help you burn fat because your body uses stored fat for fuel instead of higher-intensity activities that rely on carbohydrates.
While exercising in this zone, you will breathe faster, feel more exertion, and sweat more, but you will still be able to talk. Beginners should increase their walking time and speed progressively. A beginner’s walking regimen begins with 15 minutes daily, five days a week, focusing on basic walking techniques.
Ways to Increase Walking Intensity
If your heart rate is still less than 60% of your maximum, you should increase the intensity of your activity to burn more fat. There are various ways to accomplish this.
Add Distance and Time
Extend your stroll to keep your body working harder. Keep your pace quick. Walking for an additional few minutes will burn more stored fat. However, because not everyone has the same amount of time, alternative options may be more practical.
Walking Faster
Practice walking quicker with proper posture, arm motion, and a forceful stride. Even going for a short walk, try to move faster than usual. It may be helpful to time yourself walking a specific route and challenge yourself to do it faster each time.
Add Intervals
Use the following ways to walk faster to integrate intervals, which involve increasing your speed for a specified distance or time and then slowing down again. Intervals boost both intensity and overall pace. Research on diabetics indicated that those who conducted interval walking workouts for four months lost six times more weight than those who walked at a constant pace.
Add Hills or Stairs
Incorporating hills or stair-climbing into your walks keeps you challenged and makes your workout more effective. If you don’t have access to a hilly outdoor path or stairs, use a treadmill (start with a low incline and work your way up to a higher one) or a stair-stepping machine at the gym. And you don’t have to walk quickly on hills: Walking gently on an elevation was an excellent workout that did not stress the knee joint, particularly for obese patients.
Change Up Your Workouts
For the best results, vary your walking workouts, including intervals, short and quick walks, and long and moderate walks. More meditative, thoughtful walks might also help reduce stress. These walks help reduce cortisol levels, which may contribute to weight gain.
If you can’t walk for 45 minutes straight, make the most of your available time. Schedule two to four 15-minute walks at a vigorous pace. You will burn calories, improve your walking speed and ability, and meet the minimum required physical activity level for health.
It’s also a good idea to incorporate various forms of exercise. Other moderate-intensity exercise activities include riding a bicycle on flat ground, water aerobics, using an elliptical trainer, dancing, and doubles tennis. Physical activities challenge your body in new ways while balancing muscle development. In addition to burning fat, you’re gaining muscle and increasing your base metabolic rate. With a faster metabolism, you burn more calories all day.
Kim’s Final Thoughts…
The first step toward losing fat is to get moving. If you haven’t walked briskly for 30 minutes or more each day, use a quick-start walking program to improve your technique, speed, and walking time. Taking it slowly and focusing on the fundamentals can help you achieve your objective.
