Walking for Fat Loss???

by Jesse Cannone CFT, CPRS, CSPN

With obesity and disease increasing dramatically,
many fitness experts are recommending walking for
weight loss and fitness. Some are even going so far
as saying that walking is the best way to burn fat
and lose weight. I strongly disagree with this and
am going to show you why walking is NOT effective at
burning off body fat.

Yes, you read that correctly...

Walking is NOT effective at burning body fat and if
your goal is fat loss you might be wasting your
time. I am not saying that walking is not
beneficial, I am saying that if fat loss is the
primary goal, there are far better choices that will
deliver far better results.

The primary benefits of walking are increased blood
flow and circulation, improved recovery, and a
strengthened immune system. There are several
reasons why walking in not the best choice when it
comes to fat loss. Here are just a few:

1. Walking does NOT burn a lot of calories

The lower the intensity of the activity or exercise
the smaller the number of calories burned per unit
of time. For example, you can burn more calories in
15 minutes of bicycling at a high intensity level
than you can in 45 minutes of easy walking.

2. Walking does NOT result in a large increase in
metabolism

Another downside to walking is that because it's
generally low intensity it results in only a small
increase in metabolism that will only last
approximately 1-2 hours after the walk. On the other
hand, metabolism increases are larger and last
longer (4-24 hrs or more) when you perform high
intensity cardio workouts.

3. Walking does NOT deplete muscle glycogen

Low intensity exercise like walking does not deplete
muscle glycogen levels and therefore, later that day
if you have excess calories they will likely be
stored as body fat whereas if you deplete the
glycogen the excess calories will primarily be
stored in the muscles.

So why then do so many fitness and health experts
recommend walking for weight loss? One reason is
that people don't want to hear that they have to
work hard so they figure some activity is better
than none. Another reason is that the body burns
more fat for fuel when exercising at an easy pace,
however, the total amount of energy used is so small
that you end up burning off little body fat. That's
also why when you choose the "fat burning" program
on your treadmill or bike it has you exercise at any
easy level. Yes, you're burning fat, but so little
that you'd have to exercise at that easy pace for
hours and hours each day.

High intensity cardiovascular/aerobic exercise is
much more effective in burning off the excess body
fat. In fact, several studies have been done to
prove this. In one study they compared one group who
did moderate level aerobics for 45 minutes with
another group who performed high intensity workouts
for 15 minutes. They did before and after fitness
testing including body fat analysis and found that
the group who performed the high intensity aerobics
lost nine times as much body fat!

Want more proof?

Compare the bodies of a walker, marathon runner, and
sprinter. If you are not familiar with what a
sprinters body looks like, it is very muscular and
has little body fat while on the other hand the body
of a walker will likely have the opposite, little
muscle and more fat. The sprinter does little or no
low intensity exercise and does primarily short hard
bursts of work while the marathoner overtrains so
much they burn off both the body fat and the muscle
and that's why they tend to look almost sickly thin.

So what should you do then if your main objective is
to shed those excess pounds of body fat?

Two things:

1. Perform some form of high intensity cardio 2-4
times per week
2. Stabilize blood sugar to minimize the storage of
new fat

I know some of you by now are saying "I can't do
high intensity exercise, I have a bad knee" and
don't worry, I have a solution for you. The good
news is that high intensity is all relative to you
and your current fitness level. For example, fast
walking up and down hills may be high intensity for
you... it all depends. So don't think that you have
to start running or something like that. Just slowly
start to increase the intensity of your cardio
workouts while also maybe decreasing the time
because you can either work hard or you can work
long.

Also, you can make almost any activity or exercise
high intensity.... here are a few examples:
· increase your speed
· use an incline or hills
· increase resistance
· perform intervals ( the most effective method)

Obviously, some exercises/activities or better
suited than others but the point is if you want to
burn more fat and make your workouts as productive
as possible you need to increase the intensity.

To learn more about high intensity cardiovascular
exercise please check out the following articles:

· Forget the Fat Burn Zone -
http://www.achieve-fitness.com/forget.htm
· In Search of the Ideal Aerobics Routine -
http://www.achieve-fitness.com/ideal.htm
· Heart Rate Guidelines -
http://www.achieve-fitness.com/cardio.htm

Be sure to also check out my Burn Fat FAST! ebook
and audio program here: http://www.burn-fat-fast.com
- it covers everything from cardiovascular training
to strength training to nutrition and more.

As with any changes to your fitness program be
careful and don't over do it. Just because high
intensity workouts burn more fat, don't think that
you'll get even better results by doing it everyday
- that will quickly lead to over-training and a loss
of muscle which will only make it even harder to
burn off the fat.

So if your primary goal is fat loss, don't waste
your time walking and instead focus on progressive,
high intensity cardio to maximize the effectiveness
of your workouts.

About the Author:
Jesse Cannone is a certified personal trainer and
author of the best-selling fitness ebook, Burn Fat
FAST. Be sure to sign up for his free email course
as it is full of powerful weight loss and fitness
tips that are guaranteed to help you get the results
you want. http://www.guaranteed-weightloss.com