Walking To Lose Weight - Can you really lose weight walking?

Yep, you can, but walking to lose weight isn't enough by itself.

I'll explain in a second, and I'm also going to give you a sample walking for weight loss program.

First things first...

Get some good shoes!

Don't overlook this important first step. Your feet will punish you if you do. See this article about choosing walking shoes.

Have A Good Diet

You can walk until blisters cover the bottom of your feet, but your eating can totally sabotage your weight loss efforts.

When I use the word "diet", I don't mean some temporary starve yourself to death way of eating. I mean practice good eating habits.

You probably know that to lose weight you need to burn more calories than you take in.

You also have to make good food choices. For info about choosing weight loss foods and measuring portions, see my eating for weight loss article.

Have A Balanced Exercise Routine

Walking to lose weight should be just part of your exercise routine. Walking is good for your core and lower body, but you still need to do some kind of resistance training (or weight training) for the rest of your body.

Resistance training builds muscle. Muscle burns fat. Every ounce of muscle you add helps speed up your metabolism, which helps you burn more fat and lose weight.

Weight training also carries lots more benefits.

Lifting dumbbells or barbells is most effective for weight training. The resistance can also come from your own body weight, weight machines, elastic tubes or bands, cans of soup, or anything else that forces your muscles to contract.

Last but not least...

Have A Walking Program

If you're walking to lose weight, you need to walk with a purpose. Pretend you're being chased by a pit bull!

Here's a sample walking program, but keep in mind that you can customize the program based on your fitness level:

Phase 1: Getting Started

Goal: Walk 20 to 30 minutes 3 times a week or more

Duration: About 4 weeks

Walk as far as you comfortably can.

Phase 2: Pick It Up

Goal: Increase the frequency and length of your walks

Duration: 4 to 8 weeks

What To Do: Add 1 or 2 walks to your weekly routine. Go for one longer walk each week. If you're walking for 30 minutes 3 times a week, make one of those walks 45 to 60 minutes.

Bend your arms and take shorter, quicker steps.

Phase 3: Pick Up Your Intensity

Goal: Be consistent!

Duration: Ongoing

What To Do: Walk 30 or more minutes a day 5 to 6 times a week. Include a longer walk when you can.

Add some intervals to increase the difficulty level and make things interesting.

After a 3 to 4 minutes of "normal" walking for warm up, use a watch or stop watch and do this:

- walk at top speed for 30 seconds to 1 minute
- reduce speed for 2 to 3 minutes

Repeat this cycle somewhere between 4 to 10+ times.

You can also increase difficulty by walking up hills or on sand.

Again, you can totally customize your program for your level.

You can lose weight walking - if you follow the tips in this article.

Related:
Running To Lose Weight

Walking For Weight Loss - and have fun doing it


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