Secrets why walking helps you lose weight
You can lose weight without having to spend all day in a gym. You only need a little technique and regularity, to lose weight, walking. Let’s see how to walk correctly to lose weight.
According to trainer Lucy Knight, author of the book “Walking to lose weight”, the demands of this practice allow you to burn a maximum of calories while also adding cardiovascular benefits that help you improve muscle tone and shape your silhouette.
Losing weight only by walking is possible.
There are people who think that to lose weight, you need to spend a few hours in the gym sweating, and who think that the idea of burning fat just by walking is ridiculous, but it is not.
Lucy Knight, explains that ” Like any constant physical activity, walking causes the metabolism to burn calories and convert carbohydrates, fats and proteins into energy and not into fat reserves.” We must remember that our weight depends largely on the calories consumed and burned. Weight gain is the result of an imbalance between this balance. If more calories are burned than are consumed, thanks to the practice of physical activity, we will lose weight quickly.
Increase basal metabolism by walking.
One very important thing when it comes to losing weight is, keep in mind that the more muscle mass we have, the more energy we burn . If our muscle mass is greater than our fat reserves, the higher our basal metabolism will be, that is, the minimum amount of energy we need to be alive, and the greater number of calories we will burn. That is why it is so important to gain muscle to lose weight, and that if we do a diet, it makes us lose fat and not muscle as occurs with many unbalanced diets.
Walking is a perfect activity to burn fat, as long as it is associated with a balanced diet, of course, since it increases muscle mass and burns more calories.
Two or three 30-minute sessions a week, guarantee visible results from the first three months.
Walk at a good pace.
According to Lucy Knight, to lose weight, you have to walk fast , between 7 and 9.5 km / h. Specifically, to get an idea, you should cover a kilometer and a half in 10 or 15 minutes. Maintaining that rhythm is a key factor when it comes to losing weight. When the body works between 60 and 70% of its heart rate, the body has to draw on its reserves to obtain the energy necessary to produce muscles which in turn increase the basal metabolism, with the result that more calories are burned throughout the day and that is our goal.
The right technique to burn more calories when walking
To get the most out of our walks, we must follow these techniques that will make us burn more calories. That is the philosophy of running shoes to burn calories, modify our posture a bit to burn more fat, but that can also be achieved with a little concentration.
The correct stride
One of the most common mistakes when walking quickly is lengthening your strides unnaturally. We must find a stride that does not affect the fluidity of our movements.
1- To begin, walk about twenty steps in a straight direction, with your shoulders relaxed and your chest forward. If your head sways too much and you feel a slight stretch in the front of your leg, it means your strides are too great. Try different sizes of strides, until you find yourself in a size that allows you to walk quickly and makes you feel comfortable.
2- Accelerate the pace, taking the fastest strides, but without modifying its size. Increase the speed only until you feel comfortable , little by little you will get used to it.
- Move your hips.
By changing your strides, you will see that your hips move more. This movement will become more natural as you adjust the length of your strides. Your pelvis and hips gain mobility although you have to be careful not to exaggerate the movement. It has to give fluidity, but without becoming too accentuated.
- A good footprint
It is very important to walk correctly. The heel should touch the ground first and the toes be the ones that give us momentum, focus on dividing the movement into three parts:
1- Take a step forward. When the heel hits the ground, the ankle should be flexed at an angle of about 45 °.
2- Stretch your foot completely and support your weight in the front part.
3- When this foot is fully supported, lift the sole and toes of the other foot and pass the leg from behind to front without dragging the foot or lifting it too much.
- The trunk well placed
Not only do you walk with your legs, you must also position your torso and chest correctly.
1. The head must be in a neutral position , neither raised nor lowered. The chin has to be parallel to the ground. The ideal is to look at a fixed point 5 or 6 meters in front of you avoiding looking too much towards the ground, if you need it, of course.
2. The shoulders must be loose and relaxed at all times. You have to be able to swing your arms with ease.
3. To keep your torso upright , use your abs as they support your lower back. Tuck your belly button in and “retrovert” your pelvis forward (as opposed to arching your spine) to align your lower back and loosen your hips.
The arm technique
Arm technique is essential for walking. They are the ones that help you gain forward momentum and accelerate.
1. Keep your arms bent at 90 °. When you start to walk, swing them alternately, without moving them away from your body. (The left arm advances at the same time as the right foot and vice versa.) The movement comes from the shoulders. The hand should not rise higher than the chin and should not exceed the hip when it comes back.
2. Do not close your fists , the thumb should be in contact with the fingers loosely.
- An abdominal breath
Walking is an aerobic exercise, that is, you need oxygen. When you walk, the blood provides oxygen to the organs and muscles that work, and thanks to this fuel they can burn fat and convert it into energy. If you intensify the effort, you have to breathe more deeply to provide an extra supply of oxygen to your body, otherwise you run the risk of drowning. By taking deep abdominal breathing as you walk, you are increasing your breathing capacity.