Walking & Hiking For Fitness

If you want to lose weight, walking can really help. You don't have to struggle lifting weights or sweating on the treadmill to achieve improved levels of fitness. Walking is often recommended as part of weight loss plans.

Benefits of Walking

It can help you to lose weight, burn calories and tone up as well as increase fitness and improve your circulatory system. Walking at a moderate pace for about half an hour to an hour can help you to burn off calories and stored fat. This can help you to increase your metabolism which in turn can improve your health and allow you to burn fat more efficiently. Instead of taking the bus, train or driving over short distances, walking can be a much better alternative for benefiting your health.

Impact on General Health

This type of simple but effective form of exercise is highly useful for reducing your risk of developing certain conditions and diseases. Such illnesses can include heart disease, cancers, diabetes, heart attacks and strokes. It's easy to determine whether or not you need to reduce your weight. You just need to use the Body Mass Index (BMI) to see how much body fat you have, consult your doctor or discuss your weight and shape with a dietician.

How to Walk

You need to start slowly and build up the pace to prepare your body for the activity that it is about to embark upon. Exercising at a slow but constant rate for around 5-10 minutes informs your muscles that simply using up sugars is not going to provide the energy they require. Instead, they must utilise the fat stored in your body. By starting too quickly, at too high a level or with too much pace, you'll only burn up sugars.

Increase Heart Rate

You need to walk at speeds in which you reach and maintain a rate that falls between about 60-70% of your maximum heart rate. At this level, you'll be able to increase your metabolism and start to burn fat more efficiently. You'll also raise your Basal Metabolic Rate (MBR) which means that you'll be able to burn fat more easily throughout the day as well as building muscle and toning up. Burning fat doesn't have to be difficult. In fact, through simple exercising and scenic walks, you can achieve the results you want quickly and most importantly, you'll be able to maintain sustainable weight loss.