Walking for weight loss

Walking is our default mode of transport and a great form of exercise. For many, walking for weight loss is easy to begin and something you can enjoy as part of your journey to become healthier.

In our 4 step guide, (please note, this does not mean you only have to take 4 steps for each walk, instead that there are 4 interesting and useful topics we will share to help you on your way to walking.) you can find the best way for you to get started, no matter what current fitness level, weight or busy schedule you may have.

A great way to boost weight loss

When starting a weight loss program or diet, a great way to accelerate your results and generally feel better about the whole process is to incorporate exercise. So, is walking good for weight loss? Yes. Anything that increases your resting heart rate and gets the blood pumping around your body will burn more calories. It can actually also be quite fun when approached in the right way and with a positive mindset.

Quite often, adding exercise to your daily routine can feel like a big effort or even provoke anxiety and stress. Maybe walking is painful or you simply feel too overweight to entertain the idea of walking other than for absolutely essential reasons. Please believe me when I say that for the majority of people, the beginning is the hardest part, but the rewards come fast and make the

initial struggle worth it.

If you haven't been exercising regularly and the idea of being more active is daunting, you may find walking for weight loss is a great way to get started and also feel some additional benefits.

Four helpful tips for enjoying your walks.

1. Commit to going for a walk

In our busy lives between work, school runs (for those with kids), meeting friends, doing the weekly shopping and finding time to watch the next episode of the current series we are hooked on, it can become very easy to find excuses not to exercise. Yes, I said excuses. The hard truth is that as humans, we are very goodat protecting ourselves from actions or behaviours that we perceive as potentially being unpleasant. We find 50 reasons why we don't have time to exercise, but can occupy the sofa for a full 2 hours without even batting an eyelid. For now, let's blame our neanderthal ancestors for hardwiring this "survival" mechanism into our modern day rationale.

The main point here is that you need to be very deliberate in making a decision that yes; “I am going to go for a walk to exercise and help my weight loss”.

The next step is to plan when you will go for a walk. It may sound like overkill but trust me, by making an appointment with yourself so that at a specific time and day you will put on some comfortable shoes and leave the house it is far more likely to happen.

2. Log your activity

A great way to stay motivated and help make walking part of your routine is to track the time and distance you cover when out and about.

I’m not suggesting you become obsessed with achieving X number of steps every single day, especially to begin with. We tend to set goals beyond what is practical or sustainable, often with the whole experience feeling like a punishment and ultimately leading to failure.

Instead, I invite you to simply use an app that can tell you at the end of each walk how many steps you have done. Most phones have a health-related app as standard and they can monitor the number of steps and the days you have been for a walk. As time goes on, you may decide to try and beat your previous “daily record” by walking a few more steps.

With this awareness that whenever you are carrying your phone each step is being counted, you will be amazed at some of the tactics you incorporate to bump up the total during the day. I have found myself parking further from the shop in order to get a cheeky extra 50 steps in or even offering to grab the kids school bags from the car knowing it all adds up to the grand total.

The point here is that it’s a great way to divert your attention from the real, slightly less enthusing aspect of what we really need to achieve. In fact, while reading this whole part about counting steps and logging activity, I bet you haven’t even thought about this as being exercise. You see… It’s all about the way in which we approach the topic!

For anyone not sure how to get started, I use the Samsung Health app that came already installed with my phone and it works fine. I know the iPhone also has a health app that does exactly the same.

3. Avoid boredom

In addition to keeping track of your step count, which in itself helps make the idea of walking less monotonous, there are other things you can do to make walking for weight loss more enjoyable.

I love to explore new places. I never actually realised how little of my local area I had walked through until aiming for a different route every day. You’d be amazed at the new things I saw and learned too. Actually, one of my now favourite coffee shops was found by complete accident one day on a walk.

Another way to keep things interesting is to plug in some headphones and listen to music, an audio book or even better, the latest episode of the Weight Loss Warrior podcast! Having a distraction and finding something you enjoy listening to is yet another way of diminishing the feeling of punishing yourself by “having to go on yet another bloody walk” to instead looking forward to listening to the next chapter of the latest audio book you downloaded.

To go one step further, if audio books and podcasts are your thing you can even commit to ONLY listening to your favourite show or current novel whilst walking. You might even find yourself doing an extra lap of the block just to find out what happens next!

4. Keep safe

Most importantly, always make sure you are walking in a safe environment and take the necessary measures to keep yourself out of harms way.

Here are some top tips for staying safe whilst walking to lose weight, or walking for any reason come to think of it.

• Stay on safe routes meant for people to walk along (no, the hard shoulder of the motorway although smooth to walk on is NOT a good place to go)

• Be visible – ensure bikes, scooters and cars can see you, especially if walking at night. Use high visibility reflective clothing or appropriate lighting to stand out like a Christmas tree!

• If using headphones, keep the volume at a reasonable level. Although it’s tempting to turn my dulcet tones as I speak to our latest podcast guess up as loud as possible and shut the rest of the world out, it’s not safe. Make sure you can hear everything going on around you.

• Tell people where you plan to go, or use a GPS app that allows a close friend or family member to see where you are. See, they’re not just for suspicious spouses trying to catch their partner cheating.

• Don’t do too much, too soon. There is nothing worse than getting into the swing of your new found love for exercise then having to stop due to injury. If you are concerned about how walking may impact your healthy, seek professional advice from your GP. Everyone has a different starting point, and that’s fine. Just make sure you begin with your starting point and not the neighbour who is out running marathons for fun on a weekly basis.

I hope you have read this and now realise that walking is a low barrier to entry for exercising but can reap great rewards.

Whilst the number of calories you burn will vary from person to person, it is entirely possible to destroy 300-500 calories in a relaxed 60 minute walk. If 60 minutes sounds like a lot, do less. Do what is right for you and aim to increase it over time. You can even aim for 60 minutes a week if need be split by multiple short walks.

The one thing I am absolutely sure of is that no matter how slow you walk, how short the distance, it will be better for your long term health and weight loss journey than doing nothing.

I’d like to leave you with a quote from Marc Jacobs, American Fashion designer:

“Change is a great and horrible thing, and people love it or hate it at the same time. Without change, however, you just don’t move.”