Is walking a good exercise if I'm trying to lose weight?

Regular exercise produces many health benefits including weight control, improved mood, better sleep and prevention of chronic disease. Finding the time and motivation can be a challenge, so make exercise a part of your daily routine by planning ahead and sticking to your routine.

Start slowly and set simple, reasonable goals. If you set the bar too high, you may give up on exercise before giving it a fair chance.

• Goal 1: Walk for 10 minutes twice a day.

• Goal 2: Walk for 30 minutes five days a week and add 10 minutes of resistance training.

• Goal 3: Walk for 40 minutes five days per week and add 20 minutes of resistance training.

• Goal 4: Once you are up to 40 minutes a day, increase your pace and not your time. (Example – if you walk one mile in 40 minutes, increase your pace so you walk 1.2 miles in 40 minutes).

Walking can be a great way to lose weight if that is something you enjoy doing.  If you are busy you can pick up the pace and go for a brisk walk and still get a good workout. There is even some evidence that several shorter bouts of exercise may be better for reducing body weight and fat than one long workout.

The general rule of thumb: The more vigorous the activity, the less time you need to do it to get optimum results. And the more leisurely your activity, the longer your exercise session should be.

The added plus is any exercise that conditions the heart while building muscle causes your body to work harder -- even when it's at rest.

TRY THIS 10 MIN WALK THAT BLASTS FAT:

0:00 – 2:59: Moderate pace to warm up

3:00 – 3:59: Brisk walk

4:00 – 4:29: Jog

4:30 – 5:29: Brisk walk

5:30 – 5:59: Jumping jacks in place

6:00 – 6:59: Brisk walk

7:00 – 7:29: Jumping jacks in place

7:30 – 8:29: Brisk walk

8:30 -  8:59: Jog

Walking will be a great way to strive towards your weight loss goals. In addition, you must focus on sound nutrition. You should not expect to just exercise along and achieve your weight loss goals. In order to be successful you must be active and you must eat right!

Beyond walking, you should consider strength training. Resistance bearing exercises will truly assist you to lose weight and will be very beneficial to your body.

Depending on your current level of fitness and what your weight loss goals are, walking can be a great way to start making progress towards your goals. The problem with walking, if it is your only form of cardio, is that the human body was designed to walk effeciently. This means that you burn minimal calories while walking, roughly 80-100 calories per mile! As a refresher, there are 3500 calories in 1 pound of body fat. So in order to lose 1 pound a week you need to burn 500 calories per day in excess of what you take in. Unless you are reducing your calorie intake (which you should be) you would need to be walking 5 miles a day.

Now if this is the only form of cardio you are currently capable of, then great, it's definitely better than nothing. But as soon as you are able to increase the intensity of your cardio, do so. The body will plateau pretty quickly if you stick soley to walking. When this begins to happen, implement some tactics that will increase your calorie burn such as walking on an incline (without holding on to the treadmill), carry light weights as you walk, doing walk/jog intervals, pausing during your walks to do sets of jumping jacks, etc.

The larger the calorie defecit you create the quicker you lose weight. So focus on working out smarter by choosing exercise routines that offer as much bang for your buck (calorie burn per hour) as you can safely handle. This will help you meet your fitness goals quicker and reduce your chances of hitting a plateau!