Jeremy's Fitness News - A walk in the park?

Weight Loss...
Just A Walk In The Park?
Jeremy Biernat, Personal Trainer

As the weather turns nicer the parks and sidewalks fill up with people out taking a walk.  A good stretch of the legs.  It can be very mentally satisfying to get out there and enjoy the new fresh warm weather.  However some people are looking for more out of their walks.  They are looking for their walks to be their weight loss and fitness plan.  And while I never want to discourage any voluntary exercise I do want to point out that the path to your health and fitness goals isn't a walk in the park. 

That phrase "walk in the park", is not associated with high levels of achievement.  In fact, it means something ridiculously easy to do.  "That test was a walk in the park."  Now if your lifestyle is bed, car, chair, car, couch, and back to bed, walking will be an amazing improvement.  I tell you it's not the path to your goals not to discourage you, but I want to save you from discouraging yourself.  When I worked in a health club I saw it time and time again.  People came in, walked and watched a TV, or talked with their best friend and then leave.  The next day they are back.  They walk, watch TV, or talk and then left.  This happens over and over again.  But every time they came in they looked exactly the same, and worse yet, they feel exactly the same as when they started. If there has been improvement it has been very mild and no one has even noticed. I've even shared this same information with them when they asked why they aren't getting results.  Eventually without results this person will lose their motivation for coming in.  Who knows how long it will be until they take up the habit again?

If fitness and health were as simple as a walk in the park wouldn't we all be in much better shape?  The problem with the typical walk in the park is that it really doesn't burn many calories and doesn't even raise the heart rate considerably.  It is estimated that we typically burn 100 Calories per mile of walking or running.  If we are walking at a strong pace of 3.5 miles per hour, in a half hour we would travel 1.75 miles.  This 1.75 miles becomes roughly 175 Calories.  Or said a different way about 3 Oreo's worth or about the same as an ounce of peanuts. 

So walking does no good so why should I bother? 

Walking does do good!  I just said you could burn 175 calories extra per day.  If you did that every day you could lose 17.5 pounds over the course of a year!!  Unfortunately I have found that we tend to give ourselves exercise credits towards "bonus" food.  So if you walk for 30 minutes everyday but in the process you are so proud of yourself that you treat yourself to 2.5 chocolate chip cookies over the course of the day, you have effectively negated your exercise.  On top of that you have to be very consistent to earn the 17.5 lbs. per year.  If you miss days you won't even get that far.  If you miss half the time you can expect half the results.  Even at the rate of 17 pounds per year how much weight loss is that per month?  About 1.5 pounds.  Would you even notice 1.5 pounds over the course of a month?  Most of us wouldn't.  How can you stay motivated towards something when the results come slow? 

Again I do NOT want to discourage ANY physical activity.  If you are moving you are doing something for your body.  You are increasing flexibility, blood flow, and helping your cardiovascular function.  I just want to see more people get even more out of their time and energy investment.  I found while working with hundreds of different individuals that people like to be healthy, but they get way more excited when they look better and fit into their old wardrobe. 

My suggestions:
Get out and do your walk.  Walk as hard as you can, maybe find some hills to climb that way you can burn more calories for your time.  Besides the walk I encourage you to re-visit your diet.  Not change your diet to some all cereal diet but look at areas you can improve.  Remember 3 Oreos is about 30 minutes of walking.  If you stop eating 175 Calories per day you will be losing 17.5 pounds per year.  Combine that with your 30-minute walk and now your losing 35 pounds per year, about 3 pounds per month!!  You won't break any world's fastest weight loss records but you will be noticing steady improvement and you will be doing it in a healthy achievable way. 