Gravity Fx Fitness

Is walking a good way to lose fat?

With the warmer weather I have seen many people out walking, enjoying being outdoors and probably trying to shed some Winter accumulation of pounds.

The question is, are these people getting any results or is there something else they should be doing.  Walking is healthy and a nice way to burn some extra calories, but depending on how fit you are, it may qualify more as activity than exercise.

If you are more than 30 pounds over weight or haven’t exercised in several months, walking is a good way to get moving again and you might lose a few pounds in the process.

Start out slowly and gradually build up the amount of time you spend walking.  GRADUALLY placing more demands on your body is one of the fundamentals of progressive exercise – do a little more each time as your body adapts to the stresses.

While walking is simple and easy to do, you have to do a LOT of walking to lose weight and most people can’t keep their weight under control just by walking.  So what you would have to do is gradually increase the intensity – walk faster.

Most people I see are just casually strolling and this doesn’t burn that many calories.  Plus, once you stop walking your metabolism goes right back to where it was in a matter of minutes.  If you want to burn more calories you need to walk fast or go up and down hills.

So once you understand that more intensity is required, it might be more efficient to do something like cardio strength training.  Work your muscles against some resistance while raising your heart rate at the same time – combine cardiovascular exercise and strength training into a single time-efficient workout.

Do this two or three times a week and then do some lighter work on the other days, like walking or bike riding.  These easier movements will help you recover from the more intense workouts, getting some blood flow to the muscles and keeping your joints well lubricated.

Now, you can obviously do some more intense cycling and get a great calorie burn.  I like to do an hour bike ride about once a week in the Summer months.  I pedal fast at times and then back off and pedal moderately, before going fast again, somewhat similar to an indoor spinning class.

Generally speaking, the riders that are pedaling more intensely are fairly lean, compared to some who pedal at a pretty moderate pace.  I frequently see an older guy riding an older style bike with his big belly hanging out.  He pedals pretty slowly and he is still getting some health benefits but he’s not burning a lot of calories.

In societies where walking or biking is the primary or only means of transportation, the overall volume of activity throughout the day or week adds up.  Its rare to see an overweight mail carrier for those who walk to deliver the mail.

Keep this in mind if you can’t or won’t exercise intensely.  It will take a lot of volume (time) to get the weight loss results and you will have to be very strict with your eating.

Several research studies have shown very minimal or moderate fat losses with moderate intensity aerobic exercise, compared to greater fat loss with interval training of a more intense nature.

A leisurely walk can be a great way to unwind or spend quality time with friends or family, but if fat loss is your primary goal, pick up the pace or better yet, do some resistance training to build lean muscle tissue and increase your metabolism, then add in some type of aerobic exercise on your “off” days.

Get moving!

Brian Morgan

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To burn fat you need to turn up the heat – dial up the intensity of your workouts!  One of my clients has lost 14 pounds in a month, while spending less time exercising.

Previously, she was walking on a treadmill 5 days a week and 4 months later had lost only 6 pounds.  She’s made more progress by making dietary changes and doing burst-type training.

She is still walking, but now she alternates her pace, going back and forth with periods of higher intensity walking – kinda similar to how your car burns more gas during stop and go driving in the city.

She is doing similar exercise in the studio with dumbbells.  Multi-joint movements that involve multiple muscles to burn more calories, alternating between two exercises with little rest in between.

This causes you to release more of your body’s fat burning hormones naturally.  This gets your metabolism elevated without spending hours exercising.  She can feel the warmth in her muscles as she sweats more, helping the body get rid of toxins that can build up.

I showed her a routine that she can do at home with dumbbells and bodyweight when she isn’t working with me in person.  Its great to get results while exercising less.

Research studies have shown that walking on a treadmill without doing any resistance training doesn’t always lead to much weight loss.  If you’re like most people and short on time, interval strength training and interval cardio are the way to go.

Yeah, triathletes and marathoners are usually pretty lean, but they often spend 10 hours or more per week on their training.  Unless you are training for competition, there are more efficient ways to stay in shape.

Yesterday, I did some interval cardio using the Ropes Gone Wild training ropes.  I did 15 minutes of various diagonal, circular and vertical patterns (beatdowns) with the ropes, elevating my heart rate in a short amount of time, going into oxygen debt.

I had my HR monitor on to see what my body was doing and also to see how many calories I burned.  In the 15 minutes I burned 230 calories according to the monitor, which isn’t all that much…..until you read the rest of the story.

I turned the monitor back on as I did some kettlebell presses, before packing it in for the night, leaving the HR monitor running.  An hour and a half later I stopped it and looked at how many calories I burned.

It said 490 calories in that hour and a half after the interval rope training, for a total of 720 overall!  Got your attention now?!  Let’s say, just for the sake of argument, that the number is a little high.  Knock off 100 calories and that’s still a LOT of calories burned in less than half an hour of exercise.

The point should be clear – intense exercise keeps your metabolism elevated after you have stopped exercising.  So if short on time, turn up the flame to burn more total fat.  Its fine to mix in longer walks, bike rides or runs with your interval resistance training.  By the way, the monitor is a Polar F6.

If you’re looking for a simple program you can do at home, you might check out Turbulence Training.

Get moving!

Brian Morgan

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Can using a run-walk method increase your running performance?  I just read an interesting article on marathon running that you might find interesting.

The article was featured in Competitor magazine, a Chicago free publication geared to the active lifestyle.  The author is a running coach who has used this method of run-walking to qualify for the Boston marathon over a dozen times.

For the record, I have never, nor will I ever, run a marathon.  At my size, I’m not designed for endurance races – but what this guy says, makes sense.

He recently watched one of his pupils run a marathon.  The runner used a planned run-walk strategy.  This might not sound that out of the ordinary, as I’m told that many runners end up walking here and there while completing a marathon.

Instead of running until fatigued and then resorting to walking, the walk portion is planned into the marathon and in the training, as well.

You would take regularly scheduled walk breaks throughout your run, in order to stay “fresh” throughout your marathon.

This lets your breathing return to a more comfortable rate and gives your muscles and joints a break from pounding the pavement.  Sounds like something that would work well for those increasing their training mileage or older runners, too.

In the early portion of the race, your times would be slower, but you make up for it on the back half.  In fact, the runner mentioned set a PR in his marathon, while running a slightly faster second half of the race -

something unheard of.  This might be something that could improve your running performance and allow you to enjoy it more.

From someone who has worked with injured runners before, I’m guessing that this might cut down on overuse injuries.

This method also works for resistance training.  Stay tuned for an article on how you can apply this type of method to build lean muscle tissue (increased metabolism) and increase your strength with density training.

Get moving!

Brian Morgan

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