As I mentioned before, one of my goals is to lose more weight tracking my steps with my omron pedometer that connects to the WalkingSpree website. I've lost 60 lbs in the last few years and was well over 230 lbs. Before, I was not on a good track for my health or life.
Walking to lose weight is ideal because almost anyone can do it. Those who are older (one of my fellow WalkingSpree members is 82! And many days they kick my butt with number of steps) can often walk as well as pregnant women, people suffering from chronic illness and so on. The benefits of 10,000 steps a day (which isn't easy to achieve on your own by the way) are many that I will go into more detail with other posts but today I want to focus on walking to lose weight.
"According to the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), a group of middle-aged women who used pedometers showed a significant inverse relationship between the average number of steps they took and their body mass index (BMI) as well as their measures of body fat, waist and hip circumference. Women who averaged more than 10,000 steps a day had only 26 percent body fat, well within the recommended BMI range, while those who averaged fewer than 6,000 steps a day had 44 percent body fat. "
So what does that mean?
Basically that if you walk more, your body fat goes down and you get to wear smaller clothes (go shopping!). A person who walks 10,000 steps a day will burn between 2,000 and 3,500 extra calories a week.
To lose a pound a week you'd have to burn 3500 calories a week. So just by walking you'll lose a pound a week.
Not enough, fast enough you say?
Well it's a calculation. If you burn more calories than you eat, then you'll lose weight. So losing 1 lb a week is without any adjustment to diet. It also doesn't reflect aerobic walking which can also increase weight loss as well. The Omron HJ-720IT pedometer does measure aerobic steps, so you're ahead in the game on that. Oh, and it does show you your calories burned too. But I tend to use my dashboard on the WalkingSpree website that shows a simple comparison if my calories burned are greater than my calories taken in.
So what am I getting at?
That if I watch what I eat (approx. 1500 calories/day), meet my aerobic step targets and step targets then I lose on average 2 lb/week, occasionally 3, which is a healthy moderate way to lose weight.
Walking to lose weight is not a diet scam, it's not a quick weight loss fad. It's a permanent lifestyle change that your whole family can benefit from. Recent studies showed that children who were obese missed more school than non obese children. Not surprising when we see that obese adults miss more work than non obese adults. It is a global problem now. So if we instill a permanent lifestyle change in ourselves and hopefully have it trickle down to our children, we are improving the health of our whole family.
But I'm already on the go so much and I'm not losing any weight?!?
This is an illusion that I had busted when I started using my WalkingSpree omron pedometer. I often felt like I never stopped. So when I first used my pedometer, I was sure that it would show a high step count, after all, it was go, go go with two small kids. WRONG. I had confused being busy with being active. And I was shocked to see a dismal 3,500 steps per day in the beginning. It's not surprising to be exhausted at the end of a long day, but your energy level will increase and you will find time for being active, not just being busy with a regular walking program like I use with WalkingSpree.
Walking to lose weight is ideal because almost anyone can do it. Those who are older (one of my fellow WalkingSpree members is 82! And many days they kick my butt with number of steps) can often walk as well as pregnant women, people suffering from chronic illness and so on. The benefits of 10,000 steps a day (which isn't easy to achieve on your own by the way) are many that I will go into more detail with other posts but today I want to focus on walking to lose weight.
"According to the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), a group of middle-aged women who used pedometers showed a significant inverse relationship between the average number of steps they took and their body mass index (BMI) as well as their measures of body fat, waist and hip circumference. Women who averaged more than 10,000 steps a day had only 26 percent body fat, well within the recommended BMI range, while those who averaged fewer than 6,000 steps a day had 44 percent body fat. "
So what does that mean?
Basically that if you walk more, your body fat goes down and you get to wear smaller clothes (go shopping!). A person who walks 10,000 steps a day will burn between 2,000 and 3,500 extra calories a week.
To lose a pound a week you'd have to burn 3500 calories a week. So just by walking you'll lose a pound a week.
Not enough, fast enough you say?
Well it's a calculation. If you burn more calories than you eat, then you'll lose weight. So losing 1 lb a week is without any adjustment to diet. It also doesn't reflect aerobic walking which can also increase weight loss as well. The Omron HJ-720IT pedometer does measure aerobic steps, so you're ahead in the game on that. Oh, and it does show you your calories burned too. But I tend to use my dashboard on the WalkingSpree website that shows a simple comparison if my calories burned are greater than my calories taken in.
So what am I getting at?
That if I watch what I eat (approx. 1500 calories/day), meet my aerobic step targets and step targets then I lose on average 2 lb/week, occasionally 3, which is a healthy moderate way to lose weight.
Walking to lose weight is not a diet scam, it's not a quick weight loss fad. It's a permanent lifestyle change that your whole family can benefit from. Recent studies showed that children who were obese missed more school than non obese children. Not surprising when we see that obese adults miss more work than non obese adults. It is a global problem now. So if we instill a permanent lifestyle change in ourselves and hopefully have it trickle down to our children, we are improving the health of our whole family.
But I'm already on the go so much and I'm not losing any weight?!?
This is an illusion that I had busted when I started using my WalkingSpree omron pedometer. I often felt like I never stopped. So when I first used my pedometer, I was sure that it would show a high step count, after all, it was go, go go with two small kids. WRONG. I had confused being busy with being active. And I was shocked to see a dismal 3,500 steps per day in the beginning. It's not surprising to be exhausted at the end of a long day, but your energy level will increase and you will find time for being active, not just being busy with a regular walking program like I use with WalkingSpree.
No comments:
Post a Comment