Walking sometimes gets a bad rap when it comes to weight loss since, as many people believe, it just is not a challenging enough exercise. For example, check out a calorie calculator and you will find that you have to walk twice as long as someone jogging to burn the same amount of calories. Walking is easy and you can do it anywhere, anytime with no special equipment. There is no learning curve and it is something you can incorporate all day long. However, a magazine review featured a study about walking for exercise and found that only 26% of the people in the study walked briskly enough to achieve the intensity level recommended by the U.S. surgeon general.
Three most important goals most of us share are to live longer, to live free of illness and to control our weight. Interesting enough, the normal walking lets us achieve all three. In fact, walking every day may be the best medicine for slowing the aging process. First, it works almost every muscle in the body, improving the circulation to the joints and massaging the blood vessels. Walking also helps us maintain both our muscle mass and metabolism rate as we age. It also keeps us young and fit. For anyone out of shape or not athletically active, walking is the no-stress, no-sweat answer to lifelong conditioning.
All it takes is a little time, few guidelines, and common sense. Unfortunately, there is a lot of misinformation floating around regarding fitness walking , weight-loss and dieting. Walking is one of the best exercises for strengthening bones, controlling weight, toning the leg muscles, maintaining good posture and improving the positive self-concept. People who diet without exercising do often get fatter with time. Although your weight may initially drop while dieting but such weight loss consists mostly of water and muscle. When the weight returns, it does come back as fat. To avoid getting fatter over time, one should increase their metabolism rate by exercising regularly.
To lose weight, It is more important to walk for time than speed. Walking at a moderate pace yields longer workouts with lesser soreness leading to more miles and more calories spent on a regular basis.
High-intensity walks on alternate days do help condition one's system, but in a walking, weight-loss program, it is better to be active every day. This does not require walking an hour every day. The key is leading an active life-style 365 days of the year.
When it comes to good health and weight loss, exercise and diet are both interrelated. Exercising without maintaining a proper and balanced diet is no more beneficial than dieting while remaining inactive.
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