Saturday, September 29, 2007

Walking Program for Weight Loss - Lose Your Waist OR Waste Your Time?

From Brad Pilon...

I recently read an article in a fitness magazine that was titled
"How to walk away the pounds".

While this particular article had good intentions, I don't think
cardio (espeically walking) is an effective tool for weight loss.
Consider this, if you are of average weight, you would have
to walk 5 miles to burn an extra 500 calories a day. Even at a
fairly fast pace, it would take you about an hour to walk 5
miles. That's a lot of work just to burn 500 calories.

If you kept your calorie intake exactly the same over the
course of the week, and managed to walk for an extra hour a
day at a fairly fast pace, you may be able to burn of an extra
pound of fat per week.

This is assuming that the amount of calories you eat over the
course of a week is EXACTLY equal to the amount you need to
stay at your current weight. If you were overeating even
slightly during this week, then the extra walking would have
even less of an effect.

7 hours of exercise for a maximum of 1 pound of fat loss is
not a very effecient use of anyone's time! And, while walking
7 days a week may be possible now, think about what it
might feel like during the winter months!

This is why I believe that eating for weight loss is much
more effective than trying to 'sweat off' the pounds.

With the proper nutrition plan reducing the amount of calories
you eat by 500 calories can be almost effortless.

I have found that the very best, most efficient way to lose
weight is to combine a solid weight loss nutrition program with a
resistance training program.

Once you have these two "pillars" in place then you can
sprinkle in a little bit of extra walking, but think of this as
more of a recovery exercise that helps you clear your mind
and take a stress break (with a bonus of being able to help
burn some calories), rather than counting on it to really make
you shed the pounds.

Brad and the team at grrlAthlete.com

PS- Typical cardio machines like treadmills have been found to
overestimate the amount of calories they burn by 15-20%, so
be careful when estimating how effective these machines are
at tracking your calorie burning efforts.

PPS- I have received some more great feedback about Eat
Stop Eat
, and I have added some of it to the testimonials
Section of the Eat Stop Eat website, you can read them by
going HERE.

 

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