How To Burn More Calories While Walking To Lose Weight

As you become lighter, you don't have to work as hard to move your body. Less work means less energy required means fewer calories burned.

Also, as you exercise, your body becomes more technically efficient. Your walking technique improves and, again, you require fewer calories to do the same activity.

So how do you make sure the fat keeps coming off? Well, you could eat less. But who likes doing that? The other alternative is to find ways to burn more calories while walking.

Here are five ways to burn more calories while walking to lose weight:

1. Walk uphill. If you've been walking a route that's flat and even, try choosing a path that takes you uphill for part of the way. Let me know if you find a way to go uphill both ways. :-)

   When you work against gravity, you burn more calories than walking a flat course. Just make sure to keep your back straight and your head up when walking uphill. Don't slouch or lean too far forward. You'll put a lot of stress on your back.

2. Change your pace. Don't you find it interesting how you can drive your car 60 miles and hour down the highway and use less fuel than when you drive 30 or 40 miles an hour in the city? Why is this? It's all about inertia.

   Once your car reaches cruising speed, it takes very little effort to keep it going. Most of the energy is required to get the car up to cruising speed. You use more fuel in the city because of the continuous stopping and starting. The same goes for walking.

   If you vary your speed - speeding up and slowing down - you'll use more energy (calories). Try this the next time you go for a walk. Increase your pace for 30 seconds, then slow down to your usual walking pace for 90 seconds. Then speed up again for 30 seconds. Slow down for 90 seconds.

   Start with 10 minutes of alternating periods of faster walking with slower walking. Then slowly decrease the time you spend at the slower pace.

3. Walk on different surfaces. If I can go back to my gas mileage analogy again, another factor in how much fuel your car uses is the surface you're driving on. The smoother the surface, the less fuel you use.

   You can apply the same thinking to your walking program. Instead of walking on a nice, smooth paved surface, try walking on a dirt trail, a beach or for those of you near the 49th parallel, take a walk through a snow covered field...wearing snow shoes.

   If you've ever tried to run in sand, dirt or mud, you'll know it takes a lot more effort to move through that than it does to cruise along on a nice, smooth paved sidewalk.

4. Walk with a friend. Have you noticed that on some of your walks you feel absolutely full of energy while on some walks you feel completely drained and unmotivated? It should come as no surprise that during your energetic moments, you will work harder, walk faster and burn more calories.

   Walking with a partner can help push you to keep the pace up when you're feeling less than your best. Over time, you'll have more high-energy workouts and burn more calories.

5. Wear a weighted vest. As I mentioned earlier, your weight loss slows because you don't have as much weight to move. As you lose weight, consider wearing a weighted vest.

   Unlike carrying dumbbells or wearing wrist weights while you walk - which can damage your joints - a weighted vest provides a safe and comfortable way to add resistance to your walking routine.

   I've looked at many weighted vests online and I really like the vests by MiR Vest Inc. They offer many different types of vests. But what I really like about them is they offer a "short" vest - it doesn't come down as far on your body than most vests. This makes it easier to breath during exercise. And they have a specially designed weighted vest just for women. It just shows they're really thinking about the comfort of their customers.

These are just five ways to burn more calories while walking for weight loss. Give them a try and let me know how they work.

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