We all know regular exercise is vital for having and maintaining a healthy life. Physically active people have less risk of having heart disease, cancer, and diabetics. Exercise also helps to lose and maintain an ideal weight.
Walking is an excellent kind of exercise free, easily accessible, less risky, and easy to incorporate in our regular lifestyle.
This article will deliberate the ins and outs of walking and its impact on weight and belly fat loss.
Burns Calories
Walking does great in calorie burn. We know our body needs the energy to function normally as breathing, moving, thinking, etc. Daily calorie needs to depend on individual gender, height, weight, activity volume, and genes.
To lose or maintain proper weight, we need to lose more calories than consumption, and physical activity helps to burn calories more. Reversely, an inactive lifestyle leads to weight gain as well as occur various health problems.
Walking is a convenient form of exercise that reduces the risk of the above problems and burn calories. Materially, a mile (1.6 kilometers) of walking burns near about one-hundred calories though it depends on weight and sex.
Researchers surveyed with non-athlete people and divided them into two groups:
- Group 1: walking at a pace of five-kilometer/per hour
- Group 2: running a mile at six kilometers/hour
According to the study, those who walked burned approximately 58 calories/kilometer, whereas those who ran burned only 23 calories more than walking. It shows both of the exercises have a substantial impact on burning calories. Moreover, walking on hills and incline areas will also increase the intensity and calorie burn.
For indoor walking you can use a home use treadmill it will help to walk on your home & gym and burn more calories.
Burns Belly Fat
When the waist perimeter of a man is more than 40 inches, and a woman is more than 35 inches, they get abdominal obesity, which is a considerable health risk. Belly fat increases the risk of heart diseases and Type-2 Diabetics.
Regular aerobics as walking is one of the best ways to lose belly fat. According to a study, overweight women who walked three times every week for 50 to 70 minutes for twelve weeks, reduced 1.1 inches of the waistline and lost 1.5% body weight on average.
As per another study, people with a balanced diet walked five times every week for 1 hour for twelve weeks, lost 1.5 inches of the waistline, and 1.3% body fat. So walking plays a very significant role in losing belly fat.
Preserves Lean Muscle
During calorie burn and weight, loose people may also lose muscles, which can hamper fitness as muscles help activate more metabolism that helps to burn calories, even more, each day.
Walking can prevent losing lean muscle while losing weight. Furthermore, it also reduces age-related loss of muscle and helps to maintain muscle function and strength.
Maintains Weight
Walking not only helps to lose weight, but it also helps not to gain extra weight after losing it. After a small duration, many people achieve their lost weight again. Still, regular exercise such as walking may help maintain weight and increase the amount of burned calories each forwarding day.
According to studies, we should walk for a minimum of 150 minutes/week to keep our body weight stable. Though, people who have lost too much bodyweight may have to work out for near about 200minutes/day to avert weight gain again. So people who do regular workouts will be able to maintain their weight than those who don’t exercise after losing weight.
So, keep a certain quota for walking in your regular workout plan as walking is a low-intense workout and easy to continue.
Improves Mood
We have norepinephrine and serotonin hormones in our body that relieve the feeling of depression and release endorphins that make us feel happy. Regular physical activities make our brain more delicate to these hormones and boost our mood, decrease stress, anxiety, and depression.
We may experience improved mental condition with regular walking, which may also help us get habituated easily. According to the study, if we enjoy exercise, it will help us continue to do that physical activity. Nevertheless, if we won’t want any training, that one will be a burden for us and very physically demanding.
As walking is a low-intense aerobic workout, it simultaneously improves our mood and health and helps to continue, rather than discontinuing.
The Way of Incorporating Walking in Lifestyle
As walking is a low to moderate-intense workout and has numerous benefits both for our body and mental health, we should incorporate more walking in our day-to-day life to live a healthier and disease-free life.
Studies found that people should do moderate-intensity workouts for a minimum of 150 minutes per week. So in terms of walking, it should be 150 minutes per week at a brisk pace for a minimum of ten minutes at a single time.
There are effective ways for increasing walking in our daily lifestyle, some of them are as follows:
- Going for a brisk pace walk after dinner or during lunch break
- Looking for a company who will join while walking
- Using a fitness tracker and keeping records for motivation
- Avoiding car and going on your feet while shopping or on the way to work
- Exploring challenging routes for walking to keep yourself motivated
- Joining a walking group
These ways are some common and popular ones. You can apply anyone you like from above or go for your unique way to increase the duration and amount of walking every day but make sure it helps you improve your fitness and increase the amount of walking gradually.
Summary
Walking is an excellent, easy-to-incorporate moderate intense workout that can help to lose weight and belly fat. Moreover, it provides other health benefits as reducing the risk of Type-2 diabetics, heart diseases, and even cancer and also improves our mental health.
Walking at a brisk pace for a mile can burn out 100 calories, and it also helps to maintain lost weight and not regain. For the best result, we should combine a healthy diet with regular walking.
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Last Updated on January 1, 2023