Some people trying to lose weight, they often wonder if significantly cutting down on their carbs intake, is the only way around it. It will interest you to know that another easy and affordable to lose weight and stay healthy is by physical exercises. When you stay physically active, you not only lose the desired amount of weight but also reduce your risk of developing health conditions like heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. So, one easy way to stay physically active is by walking. Not only is it very affordable and easily accessible to a lot of people, but it’s also one of the best possible physical activities, but there is also.
You can also easily include it in your everyday life and raise the bar of your good health at almost no cost at all. So what we intend to do with this article is to see how walking can help you lose both belly fat and weight.
You Burn Calories by Walking
Calories are stored in your body for the sake of energy – And this is how your body is able to carry out all the complex chemical reactions that help you to function normally, move, breathe and even think. You must, however, understand that the number of calories that a person needs to function daily differs from individual to individual — Based on their weight, sex, genes and activity level.
So if your intention is to lose weight, then you would have to burn more calories than you consume — And this people who engage a lot in physical activities tend to burn more calories. This means that, not only do you burn fat when you engage in physical activities, you also tend to reduce risks of diseases and health problems. So you have to do everything o avoid leading a sedentary lifestyle and by getting more exercise through walking more often in order to burn more calories and reduce these risks.
You can start by walking a mile (1.6 km) — Which will help you burn approximately 100 calories, depending on your sex and weight. There was a scientific study that measured the number of calories burned by non-athletes who walked at a brisk pace of 3.2 miles (5 km) per hour or ran at a pace of 6 mph for about a mile. According to the study, those who walked at a brisk pace burned an average of 90 calories per mile.
Another way to burn more calories is to increase the intensity of your walk by walking on hilly parts or slight inclines.
Recap
When you walk you burn some calories, which may help you lose weight and keep it off. If you walk for at least a mile burns, you will burn about 100 calories.
Walking Helps to Preserve Lean Muscle
People tend to lose some muscle alongside body fat when they cut calories and lose weight. You may already know that is muscle is more metabolically active than fat. What this means is that it helps you burn more calories each day. So by walking, you counter this effect by preserving lean muscle when you lose weight.
So the rate of metabolism reduces significantly and this often leads to weight loss and makes it easy to maintain weight loss results. This can also reduce age-related muscle loss, and help you retain more of your muscle strength and function.
Recap
When you engage in a physical activity like walking, it prevents some of the muscle loss that occurs when you lose weight. So this, therefore, helps you to minimize the drop in metabolic rate that occurs when you lose weight, making it easier to keep the lost weight at bay.
Walking Burns Belly Fat
So having a lot of belly fat has been known to increase the risk of diseases like type 2 diabetes and heart disease. It’s is nothing short of a health risk(abdominal obesity) for men to have a waist circumference greater than 40 inches (102 cm) and women to have a waist circumference greater than 35 inches (88 cm).
Walking regularly has been known to be one of the most effective ways to reduce belly fat. A small study has shown that obese women who walked for 50–70 minutes three times per week for 12 weeks, on average, reduced their waist circumference by 1.1 inches (2.8 cm) and lost 1.5% of their body fat.
Also walking briskly for 30–60 minutes per day have observed similar results have also proved to help lose belly fat.
Recap
If you participate in a moderate-intensity aerobic exercise like walking regularly, you could lose some belly fat.
Walking Helps Improve Your Mood
When you take part in exercises, you boost your mood and also decrease feelings of stress, depression, and anxiety. How it does this is, is by making your brain more sensitive to the hormones serotonin and norepinephrine. They help relieve feelings of depression and stimulate the release of endorphins, which make you feel happy.
So if you find your mood lifted whenever you walk, there is a tendency that you might want to do it regularly.
Recap
If you partake regularly in exercise, your mood improves which invariably helps you to stay active for a long time. It was shown recently in a review that maintaining a stable weight, means walking at least 150 minutes per week.
And when you have lost a lot of weight, you may need to exercise more than 200 minutes per week to prevent yourself from regaining it. It has also been proven that exercising a lot helps to successfully maintain weight loss, and there is a likelihood that people who exercise less may soon regain the weight they have already lost.
How to Build Up a Lifestyle of Walking
You already know that by walking regularly, your fitness and mood improves, an increased likelihood of living a longer, healthier life as well as a significant reduction in risk of disease. For these benefits, people are advised to participate in at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise per week.
So for walking, this translates to around 2.5 hours per week (at least 10 minutes at a time) at a brisk pace. And when you add more exercises, you increase your health benefits and reduces your risk of disease to a considerable extent.
Recap
When you exercise by walking more, it helps you maintain weight loss.
How do You Increase the Amount of Walking You Do and Achieve These Results?
You can start by using a fitness tracker and log your steps. This will in no small measure motivate you to do more. So when on a lunch break it after dinner, making a habit of taking a brisk walk will also help you achieve these targets.
You can also walk your dog or join a friend who had a dog to walk theirs. Sometimes rather than schedule a meeting at a cool restaurant or your office desk, you could take a walk and talk over that business or idea. Ditch a ride in your car or bus and just take a walk to your favourite grocery store or running errands.
Walk to working to work if it’s too far, it just parks your car a little away from your office or get off your bus a few stops early and walk the rest of the way can go a long way every day. Also trying out new and challenging routes during walk sessions is another way to get into this lifestyle.
If you know of any walking group, join one. Just start today and start small and graduate gradually. Every little bit helps, so start small as you increase the pace and distance you cover daily.
Recap
When you adopt walking daily, it helps you burn more calories and lose weight. So when you walk more often, you lose both weight and belly fat — And also you enjoy some other health benefits such as a decreased risk of disease and improved mood.
Walking just one mile helps burn about 100 calories. In all, by walking you lose weight, you also participate in physical activity and minimize risks of diseases.
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