What to know about walking for weight loss?
Walking is the most cost-effective form of exercise to lose weight and yes, walking for weight loss is a scientifically tried and tested way to lose weight.
If you face physical problems in running, jumping, lifting weights, or performing weight-loss yoga then you must try different pace of walk patterns for weight loss.
Many people think walking is a daily life process which has no impact on our fitness and strength.
But today, let us explain to you – how everyday walking for weight loss can become – your following most favorite form of workout.
Walking For Weight Loss – Your Workout Plan!
A. Focus on Your Form
No matter what you practice as a workout, the form or your workout is very important.
If the correct form of postures is not followed, you can feel uncomfortable and stressed throughout the workout, with a later outcome of injury.
While walking, make sure your core is tight, your arms are swinging, your shoulders are down, your back lengthens, and you are looking straight ahead on the way you walk.
B. Aiming for Daily Steps
People aim to lose weight without any source of excitement. When you give yourself a daily goal to accomplish, the level of excitement and passion helps you achieve your weight loss goals.
Set distance or number of steps in your plan as your daily goal. Like walking 10,000 steps daily, which is roughly 5 miles of walking workout.
We know you are busy. Therefore, it’s not mandatory to cover all this in one go; you can break and spread this number throughout your day.
With the assistance of a pedometer or a smartwatch, you can set walking 2,500 steps four times a day and – Walla! You are sorted!
A 2016 study has seen a significant amount of lower anxiety, depression, anger, fatigue, confusion, BMI, and BP levels after walking 10,000 steps daily.
C. Try Brisk Walking at First
You have just started and had low stamina, so you should begin with a brisk walk for 60 minutes daily.
You can start with 10 minutes of brisk walking, then 5 minutes slow walk, and again following the same walking pattern for 3 to 4 rounds daily for the next two weeks.
When you start getting comfortable with this routine, let’s try something new.
D. Now, Try Power Walking
Just like you call extreme running a “Sprint,” here’s an intense speed walk, i.e., named power walking or slow jogging. Now that you have to consider your movement, speed up and walk as fast as possible.
Make sure to use a lot of arm momentum to increase your heart rate and walk pace.
Power walking is great as it burns calories and increases cardio strength, and the longer you walk, the more calories you will tend to burn.
Ideally, power walking daily for 30 to 60 minutes is good for weight loss.
E. Finally, Try Power Walking + Body Weight Exercise
Incorporating strength training or some bodyweight resistance workouts for muscle growth and toning is crucial.
Bodyweight exercises like squats, push-ups, crunches, pull-ups, burpees, and lunges will help you form a strong full-body strength.
When trained with body weights, you tend to lose fat more rapidly. Also, if your diet is full of lean proteins, you will gain lean muscle mass over a period which makes your physical outlook even more appealing.
How Does Walking After Dinner or Lunch Helps?
Mostly we tend to gain weight around the time of lunch and dinner.
This is so because we feel exhausted by our work as the day passes. As a result, we do not feel like working out.
On the contrary, stress, and fatigue make us feel hungry, and we tend to overeat in this process.
Many people never realize that it’s happening with them, and as a result, over some time, they tend to gain weight.
Health Benefits of Walking After Dinner or Lunch
Walking is a low-impact workout routine, which might seem easy to follow. But, it can be a challenge in different ways to lose weight.
If you are constantly challenging your walking plan with the length of walk and pace-intensity of the walk, you will be able to reap the weight loss benefits from walking exercise routines.
List of 4 Surprising Health Benefits
1. Controlled Blood Sugar Levels.
Prolonged elevated high blood sugar or hyperglycemia is a severe reason for causing harm to your body, including weight gain.
Scientific research suggests that the timing of light physical activity shortly after eating your food can affect the time-course of postprandial (after a meal) blood glucose.
Any activity like walking after dinner, even for 10 min at low intensity, can assist you in managing your postprandial blood glucose if undertaken when blood glucose is high.
2. Improves Sleep
When we always get stuck on our phones, especially during sleep time, the blue light from gadgets hinders our minds and leads us towards sleep disorders.
Thus, it is highly advised to stop using phones before 1 hour of Sleep. During this time, you can divert your mind by doing physical activities like brisk walking in your room.
Research has concluded that exercise effectively decreases sleep complaints and treats chronic insomnia.
3. Lowers Anxiety, Depression, and Fatigue
When you perform brisk walking or power walking, you will experience a sudden rush of good endorphins all over your veins.
These feel-good hormones like Oxytocin, Serotonin, Dopamine, and other Endorphins are similar to painkillers – “Natural Painkillers.”
They have the power to decrease our physical discomfort, boost mood, reduce stress, anxiety, and induce feelings of immense relaxation.
4. Improves Digestion and Metabolism
The more you move, the higher amount of calories you will burn. Walking daily on a challenging note every day will help you push your body’s stamina.
This will increase your blood circulation around all over the body, especially around your digestive system.
The more blood circulation is there. There is a higher chance of using stored deposited fat.
This means walking movement will help you in burning fat. Also, when you keep on moving and eating a balanced diet throughout the day, your metabolism tends to rise.
Higher metabolism levels will help you lose weight and maintain your body weight.
The Bottom Line
Does Immediately Walking After Dinner Helps Lose Weight?
There are myths about walking after dinner or lunch. Many people believe that it leads to indigestion and stomach cramps.
Thus, we should rest after dinner or lunch and go for a walk after some time. But, new research has cleared all doubts around this question.
Research states that walking instantly after a meal can be more effective for losing weight than waiting for one hour to walk post-meal.
Many people are taught to rest after a filling meal and begin walking after 30–60 minutes have elapsed.
This may be good advice for people who do not feel well when they start walking just after a meal. But for some people, there is no need to rest after a meal because no such adverse reactions are felt.
