HOW MUCH YOU HAVE TO WALK TO START LOSING WEIGHT

Walking is one of the safest forms of exercise known today. Depending on how often you walk, you can manage to easily lose one pound per week or more. Think about it, in less than five months you can be 20 pounds lighter without spending hours at the gym and without going on a diet.

While you shed the pounds and inches from your body, you are also toning your muscles and improving your health. Once you learn how to implement the principles of walking to lose weight into your lifestyle, you will surely be hooked on this easy and beneficial exercise routine.

How to Lose Weight by Walking

The number of calories you can burn by walking is determined by your body weight and walking pace. On average, if you walk at a pace of 4 miles per hour (a common pace) you can burn roughly 400 calories per hour.

You don’t necessarily need to go 4 miles a day. As an example, if you commit to walking 3 extra miles, they would be burning an extra 300 calories a day. You can even walk a shorter distance than that and combine it with your daily schedule. You can use a device called pedometer to help you burn extra calories while walking and doing your daily schedule.

Pedometers and Weight Loss

If you are trying to lose weight through walking, one of the best things that you can do to boost the chances of success for your efforts is to go out and buy a good quality pedometer  or a wrist band that can track your daily activities .

Pedometer is a helpful device that you attach to your clothing near your hip area. It is light weight and has a variety of features. The main feature is counting the number of steps you take during your workout or throughout your entire day.

In order to find out how many miles you need to cover to drop extra pounds, you need to find out how many you are currently covering. This way, you will know by how much you need to increase your steps, or distance each day in order to be able to see a difference in the number on the scale.

For example; if you currently take 8,000 steps with your existing routine and daily habits and are maintaining weight, the number of steps that you need to increase your daily distance to lose weight is simply a matter of mathematics; increasing your mileage according to the number of calories you want to burn (more details on that below).

How Many Steps To Take to Lose Weight?

To lose weight the average person needs to take about 2,000 steps in the average mile. One mile burns about 100 calories. This means your pedometer will help you keep track of your steps, how many miles you reach each day and how many calories you burn. It will also help you if you don’t have time to exercise. You can simply add steps to your daily routine.

• 1 Mile = 2,000 steps and 100 calories burned
• 1 Pound – 3,500 calories
• 1 Pound weight loss per week = 500 calorie deficit per day
• To lose 1 pound per week you need to add 10,000 steps to your day.

If 10,000 steps sounds a lot, here are a few ideas on how to fit all that walking into your busy day (remember – you don’t need to start from 10,000 steps. Start gradually – you will just lose less weight).

• Get off the bus early and walk the rest of the way home or to work.
• Park your car further away from your destination and walk the extra distance.
• Walk to the station instead of taking the car or bus.
• Take the stairs instead of the lift.
• Walk the children to school.

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