Walking To Lose Weight

Burn more calories than you consume to lose weight. Once the diet part is planned, get to the exercise. This means 30 minutes a day seven days a week of aerobic work. Walking to lose weight is a tolerable, low impact way to accomplish this goal and more importantly to stick with it for a long time. Here are some good walking tips.

Walking for 30 minutes a day seven days a week is a great start. In fact, it's much better than the five day, or even three day, routine that many experts recommend. 30 minutes of exercise 3-5 times a week just isn't enough. The body needs work every day. That means seven days a week and if walking to lose weight is the way to make that tolerable every day for the rest of your life, then walk.

Once the walking is established do some other activities to increase your physical output. This can include simple things like raking leaves instead of blowing them, wacky things like playing tag with your children, as well as other every day habits such as parking in the furthest space from the store rather than the closest.

After getting accustomed to walking that 30 minutes every day, make some adjustments by adding intervals. Intervals are short bursts of increased activity sprinkled into a normal routine. Start out by running for 30 seconds every 10 minutes of the walk. Gradually up this to a one minute run every five minutes, which goes like this. You walk for the first four minutes, then run for the fifth, then walk the next four minutes, run the next minute, and so on for the whole 30 minutes. Keep in mind that a run is not a jog, it's faster, it's a sprint. So if you have to work up to run with jog at first.

Walking to lose weight can be a whole family activity. Walk the kids to school instead of driving them. Walk to the store. Get out and see the sights. And no, don't stop walking just because of some rain. Wear a rain coat and some galoshes.