It’s a good idea to get away from the concept of losing weight, it all comes down to changing size instead of weight, which is what most people ultimately want. Try switching to a tape measure instead of a scale, this will be a more accurate measure of your progress.
Certainly, changes to your diet are important, but no weight loss program has much of a chance of success without exercise. Aerobic exercises are ideal for this, they get the heart pumping, raising the body’s metabolism and burning calories. What you should be looking for is an activity that can be done frequently and easily, allowing it to fit into your lifestyle with relative ease.
There is an exercise that fits perfectly: walking. Sometimes known as the king of exercises, walking burns almost as many calories as jogging, and while it has the advantage of burning calories by bearing weight, it’s a low-impact exercise, which means there’s minimal risk of injury. How many people do you know who have been injured as a direct result of taking a walk?
Walking is not only great for burning fat, there are a host of benefits available to the regular walker:
- Low impact
- Improve physical condition
- Improves circulation
- Low blood pressure
- Reduce stress
- Increase muscle mass
- Increases bone density
- increase metabolism
- Minimizes the risk of diabetes
Having learned all this, how can you afford not to include walking in your daily routine? Don’t try to speed up your progress, start with short distances and don’t get impatient, you have the rest of your life to increase the time and distance you walk! The main goal is to walk daily, making it a habit, so that the benefits you receive are as permanent as your exercise program.
Walking is great because apart from a good pair of shoes, you don’t need any specialized equipment. You can start by simply walking out your front door, and if the weather is bad, you may want to consider investing in a treadmill. Treadmills are great because you can go about your entire daily routine without getting wet and do something else like watching TV at the same time!
If you’ve never done regular exercise before, or it’s been a long time since you’ve exercised, it’s a good idea to visit your doctor to let him know what you plan to do, so that your doctor can advise you on the suitability of this – or indeed any other – exercise.