You hear from many people that they are running to lose pounds. But what if running is too much for you – or simply not something for you? Plus, it is an injury-prone sport and if you have to lie down with your foot up on the sofa, there isn’t a lot of movement.
No, you’d better go for a walk. Accessible, fun, and (almost) without risk. “But you don’t lose weight, right?” You might think now. wrong. Walking is very effective in burning calories, in a way that is easy to maintain.
Preparation
Before you take a step, it is a good idea to realize that walking is not a panacea. It is a tool that can help you achieve your goal of losing weight, provided you also take other factors into consideration.
One of these is: You only lose weight if you burn more calories than you put in. This means eating less and exercising more.
You can still walk that far, if your diet is not healthy and filled with unhealthy and high-calorie foods, then you will not lose weight. It is important to drink enough water.
10,000 steps a day
Lots of people aim to take 10,000 steps a day. This idea started with Japanese physician Yoshiro Hatano, who showed that people who exercise every day have better health. To express the minimum required exercise per day, he used to take that exact number of steps.
Recent studies show that taking 10,000 steps at moderate intensity is more effective for your health than exercising three times a week, for example. Plus, you’ll also burn more fat by walking compared to fitness. This is because in fitness you burn carbs instead of fat. You are only burning fat with moderate exertion, at 60 to 70 percent of your maximum heart rate.
So how long should I walk in order to lose weight?
Walking burns about 520 calories an hour. Fat burning begins after about 2,000 steps, which equates to twenty minutes of walking. With a pedometer, you can easily keep track of how many steps you still have to take, and nowadays most step meters also count the number of calories you burned instantly.
