Lose Weight Walking

Reviewed by Dietitian, Juliette Kellow BSc RD

Here's a great new book written by fitness instructor Lucy Knight and it's a great choice for anyone who wants to lose weight easily and inexpensively.

Walking for Weight Loss starts by explaining the health benefits of walking, which don’t just include losing weight, but also improved immunity, better joint and bone health, improved posture, less back pain and even a reduced risk of conditions such as breast cancer and stroke. You’ll also find out how walking is good for the mind.

There is then a large section on how to achieve good posture, much of which focuses on learning to engage your core muscles – the muscles of your abdomen and lower back that support the centre of your body as you walk. The author explains this is important because good posture is the starting point for a good walking technique.

Next, there is information on how to walk properly, including advice on finding your correct stride length, how to use your arms and how to breathe properly.

The book also includes information on different types of walking.

The main focus is on power walking, which has similar aerobic benefits to running and tones your bottom, thighs, hips, abs, upper back and shoulders, but has less impact on the joints.

There’s also a large section on the latest craze in the world of walkers – Nordic walking. This is effectively power walking with weight-bearing, ski-like poles. Using the poles exercises your arms as you use them to push off from the poles to propel yourself forward and then push against them when you plant them into the ground. This means your upper body gets a harder workout than with other types of walking.

Plus it’s estimated that you’ll burn 46 percent more calories, and therefore lose more weight.

There are smaller sections on ‘Mall’ walking – basically walking around your local shopping mall when the weather is bad – hill walking, rambling, race walking, walking holidays, charity walks and walking on the treadmill.

As you would expect, there’s advice on warming up and cooling down, tips on dealing with common injuries such as sprains, shin splints and cramp, information on the kit you need, safety tips, advice on staying hydrated and a small section on healthy eating.

However, when it comes to lose weight, the part of the book that is most relevant is the section on developing your own plan and how to find and achieve your target heart rate for burning fat.

There are also three walking programmes to help you lose weight – one for beginners, one for intermediates and one for advanced walkers.

WLR says:

As the old Chinese proverb says, “Even the longest journey begins with a single step” and it’s never been more accurate than for when we want to lose weight, especially if we have a lot of weight to lose.

The good news is, this book shows you how to literally take that first step. Better still, it’s great to see a book that makes exercise look easy and achievable.

See how many calories you could burn.

Most of us know that to lose weight and get fit, we need to do more exercise. But for many of us the thought of joining a gym, going to an aerobics class, heading out for a jog or taking the plunge at our local swimming pool isn’t that appealing.

For good health, experts recommend that we should all perform 30 minutes of moderate intensity exercise – which includes fast walking – on five or more days every week, increasing this to 45-60 minutes every day if we want to prevent obesity. This book is guaranteed to help you achieve this – and lose weight, too.