Walking and Losing Weight

Alternately walking to lose weight and jogging to lose weight can be the very best exercise to lose weight, especially when combined with drinking lots of water and a proper professional diet and nutrition program. By proper I mean from consultation with your physician, personal trainer and nutritionist. They should help you to design and monitor a program that is suitable to your own special circumstances. All you would then need is some discipline and commitment, with suitable comfortable footwear and outfits for terrain and weather, to achieve your goal of walking to lose weight.

Best Time to Walk
1. Every person is different and each will find that a particular time of day to walk works better for them. However, there are some benefits to consider, when choosing a walking time.

2. Walking first thing in the morning gets the heart pumping and blood moving throughout the body. Some people find this starts out the day with a surge of energy that lasts throughout the morning. Walking, or any cardio exercise will control your appetite. Walking first thing in the morning should help you lose weight by controlling your eating throughout the day.

3. Walking after the evening meal will help burn off those calories. However, don’t exercise too close to bedtime, as it may make it difficult to get to sleep. Walking can rev up the metabolism to a higher degree through your sleeping time, however, if late night walking does not disturb your sleep patterns. Walking at this time may also relive stress built up during the working day.

Food for the hills
1. You need to keep your body properly ‘fuelled’ during a day’s walking. If you’re walking as a way of losing weight, you should try to get the energy your body will need from high-carb, low-fat foods.

2. Try fresh fruit, dried fruit, chicken or tuna sandwiches, malt loaf, scones, fruit juice or jaffa cakes.

3. Chocolate has a high fat and sugar content (1 x 49gm bar of Cadbury’s Dairy Milk contains 255 Calories) – but for some (me!) it can provide a huge psychological boost. Add it to your lunch box in small amounts – but consider eating the dark variety which is considered to be generally the healthier option.