A Long Walk To Freedom from Being Fat

So many people today are overweight. Many adults do no exercise at all and even some children and teenagers are now sedentary, doing next to no exercise from one week to the next. The result is increasing levels of overweight and obesity.

One of the biggest problems is that most people feel that they do not have opportunities open to them to exercise. Excuses I hear most often are, “I do not have time to go to the gym” or “I cannot afford gym membership”, while others simply say “I do not know how to exercise”.

We are living in a strange culture today. Exercise is so natural it is almost unfathomable how anyone could not know how to do it. It is like saying that you do not know how to eat or breathe.

What’s the Most Affordable Form of Exercise?

The easiest, most accessible and cheapest form of exercise is walking. For anyone that is overweight and unfit (which is most people who have done no exercise since childhood) walking is the best way to start getting fit again. Why?

• Because it is low impact so will not cause damage to knees, ankles or hips.
• It is easy to do, no training is required.
• No cost, other than a pair of comfortable shoes
• Can be done any time of day or night
• You can exercise to and from your home
• A brisk walk burns as many calories as a slow jog

Walking as Exercise

So walking really is a great way to exercise. You will get fitter and lose some weight too. A good pair of shoes will help a lot, but so long as your shoes cause no discomfort then you are good to walk in them for 45-6- minutes each day at a moderate to brisk pace.

Walking also burns calories, and for unfit people you burn more calories walking than you do jogging. Why? Because an unfit person will struggle to jog for more than 10-15 minutes but should be able to walk for 60 minutes. A lot more calories are burned in that time.

Also, you do not need to go anywhere to start walking. Just step out your front door and head off. You can walk aimlessly, just take a circular route or walk to a point and then return, or you could make walking a part of your daily tasks. If your newsagent or grocers is a mile away then leave the car at home and walk there and back.

Before the invention of the car most people still walked everywhere. Women especially would walk to the local shops several times a day – once to get the morning bread and milk, and then again to get the meat for dinner, then again for any other tasks. Walking really is the most natural and most effective way for out of shape people to get back in shape.

After a few months of vigorous walking you could move on to jogging. But if you make walking a part of your daily routine then you can stay fit and slim with walking alone.

Author bio:

Jon Wade is studying Health Science with the Open University and is specialising in obesity issues and human nutrition. He has also written walking plans to help people get back into shape.