Hmmm….   Interesting…..

Walking for Fat Loss???

by Jesse Cannone CFT, CPRS, CSPN

With obesity and disease increasing dramatically, many fitness experts are recommending walking for weight loss and fitness. Some are even going so far as saying that walking is the best way to burn fat and lose weight. I strongly disagree with this and am going to show you why walking is NOT effective at burning off body fat.

Yes, you read that correctly…

Walking is NOT effective at burning body fat and if your goal is fat loss you might be wasting your time. I am not saying that walking is not beneficial, I am saying that if fat loss is the primary goal, there are far better choices that will deliver far better results.

The primary benefits of walking are increased blood flow and circulation, improved recovery, and a strengthened immune system. There are several reasons why walking in not the best choice when it comes to fat loss. Here are just a few:

1. Walking does NOT burn a lot of calories

The lower the intensity of the activity or exercise the smaller the number of calories burned per unit of time. For example, you can burn more calories in 15 minutes of bicycling at a high intensity level than you can in 45 minutes of easy walking.

2. Walking does NOT result in a large increase in metabolism

Another downside to walking is that because it’s generally low intensity it results in only a small increase in metabolism that will only last approximately 1-2 hours after the walk. On the other hand, metabolism increases are larger and last longer (4-24 hrs or more) when you perform high intensity cardio workouts.

3. Walking does NOT deplete muscle glycogen

Low intensity exercise like walking does not deplete muscle glycogen levels and therefore, later that day if you have excess calories they will likely be stored as body fat whereas if you deplete the glycogen the excess calories will primarily be stored in the muscles.

So why then do so many fitness and health experts recommend walking for weight loss? One reason is that people don’t want to hear that they have to work hard so they figure some activity is better than none. Another reason is that the body burns more fat for fuel when exercising at an easy pace, however, the total amount of energy used is so small that you end up burning off little body fat. That’s also why when you choose the “fat burning” program on your treadmill or bike it has you exercise at any easy level. Yes, you’re burning fat, but so little that you’d have to exercise at that easy pace for hours and hours each day.

High intensity cardiovascular/aerobic exercise is much more effective in burning off the excess  body fat. In fact, several studies have been done to prove this. In one study they compared one group who did moderate level aerobics for 45 minutes with another group who performed high intensity workouts for 15 minutes. They did before and after fitness testing including body fat analysis and found that the group who performed the high intensity aerobics lost nine times as much body fat!

Want more proof? Here’s something I cover in depth in my book….

Compare the bodies of a walker, marathon runner, and sprinter. If you are not familiar with what a sprinter’s body looks like, it is very muscular and has little body fat while on the other hand the body of a walker will likely have the opposite, little muscle and more fat. The sprinter does little or no low intensity exercise and does primarily short hard bursts of work while the marathoner overtrains so much they burn off both the body fat and the muscle and that’s why they tend to look almost sickly thin.

So what should you do then if your main objective is to shed those excess pounds of body fat?

Two things:

1. Perform some form of high intensity cardio 2-4 times per week

2. Stabilize blood sugar to minimize the storage of new fat

I know some of you by now are saying “I can’t do high intensity exercise, I have a bad knee” and don’t worry, I have a solution for you. The good news is that high intensity is all relative to you and your current fitness level. For example, fast walking up and down hills may be high intensity for you… it all depends. So don’t think that you have to start running or something like that. Just slowly start to increase the intensity of your cardio workouts while also maybe decreasing the time because you can either work hard or you can work long.

Also, you can make almost any activity or exercise high intensity…. here are a few examples:

increase your speed

use an incline or hills

increase resistance

perform intervals (the most effective method)

Obviously, some exercises/activities or better suited than others but the point is if you want to burn more fat and make your workouts as productive as possible you need to increase the intensity.

To learn more about high intensity cardiovascular exercise please check out the following articles:

Forget the Fat Burn Zone

In Search of the Ideal Aerobics Routine

Heart Rate Guidelines

As with any changes to your fitness program be careful and don’t over do it. Just because high intensity workouts burn more fat don’t think that you’ll get even better results by doing it everyday - that will quickly lead to over training and a loss of muscle which will only make it even harder to burn off the fat.

Be sure to also check out my Burn Fat FAST! ebook and audio program .

Oh, it’s one of those mornings!  You know… The kind of morning where you just can’t seem to get yourself moving and any type bouncing is certainly out of the question.  So…

I compromised my workout!

Instead of doing the 3.4 - 5.0 MPH intervals (if you call 1/8 of a mile an interval) at a 4% grade that I did yesterday, I compromised at walked at 3.0 MPH and raised the incline to 6%.  No bouncing required! 

I still did my daily minimum of 2.0 miles and 40 minutes.  I still sweat.  I just changed the intensity from speed to incline.  The treadmill calorie counter actually registered more calories burned than other days.  Go figure!

Another great benefit of a treadmill: You can change your workout and intensity and the touch of a button. 

Walking should reduce back pain and stiffness because it gets you moving around.  Unfortunately this is not always the case. 

Even as a teenager, I can remember walking through the mall with my younger sister.  After a while of walking, I had to stop and stretch my back.  The most effective way of doing this was to squat.  Can you imagine how embarrassing that must have been for both me and my sister?  Me squatting right there in the middle of the mall with all those people walking past?  (I actually laugh now thinking about it, but it wasn’t funny then.)

Well, the same thing still happens to me today after I walk on my treadmill.  Thanks to my chiropractor, my spine has loosened up enough that I can get it to “adjust itself” after I walk.  (By doing that same squat in the privacy of my own home.) 

But it does make me wonder why, after years of chiropractic care, I still have the same problem.  A friend sent me a link that might explain it: LoseTheBackPain.com.  It talks about how muscle imbalances are the cause for a majority of back pain.

Don’t get me wrong.  I love my chiropractor.  She works on releasing the sublaxations (misalignments) in my spine which makes me healthier and relieves muscle pain.  Some sublaxations cause muscle imbalances.  AND… some muscle imbalances cause sublaxations.  Which came first?  The chicken or the egg?  Who cares? Just fix it!  LOL!

Really.  It makes sense to me that using the LoseTheBackPain System along with my chiropractic care is the most logical solution.  It will take care of both the chicken and the egg!!

OK… This has been bothering me! 

What the heck does the “caloried burned” display on my treadmill actually mean?   Is it a base minimum?  Is it an average?  Is it just a guideline? 

For example, I have a friend who reported she walked/jogged for 15 minutes and went 1.25 miles.  In her own words, she “walks faster than most people can run”.  She can walk at 4.5 to 5.0 MPH.  For me, that would definitely be a jog.  Her legs are much longer than mine.

So, does she actually burn more calories than me just because her legs are longer and she can cover more ground in less time?  I hardly think so. 

Does someone who is in good physical shape walking at 4.0 MPH burn more calories than an out of shape person struggling to maintain a speed of 3.0 MPH?  That doesn’t make any sense to me!

Unless there is a permanent heart rate monitor attached to someone, how can a machine’s programming (or even a chart on paper for that matter) determine how many calories someone burns during their workout?

Silly as it may sound, I feel gypped!  I’m working very hard and the numbers on my treadmill just don’t demonstrate my effort.  Perhaps I’m a little jealous of my long-legged friend who actually has enough endurance to jog for five minutes, let alone 15.  (I’ve never been able to jog more than a quarter of a mile, even in my best shape.)

I guess I should just ignore that darn number and be grateful that I am losing weight and getting in shape.  But sometimes, you’ve just gotta vent! 

It is my pleasure to announce the Tread This Fitness Shop. 

I have added links for products that I use myself or have been recommended to me by others.  I hope you enjoy browsing the selections.  Of course, if you feel like shopping, that would be all right too.  ;)