i have started a diet and have taken up walking, am walking 1 mile a night, half a mile down a hill and half..

Question

mile back up, is this good for losing weight or will it just build muscles in my legs? and will it make any difference to my top half? not keen on aerobics and things like that and walking is free. thanks guys.

Answer 1

Sit ups are also free and great for the tummy... maybe you could do them when you get home while you watch tv or something? Put on some sad pop music and do the housework!

Answer 2

First thing first, any action you take above and beyond your normal daily routine(food pattern as well) will help you to loose weight. Walking burns calories bottom line. There are ways to burn more but it burns calories none the less.
Walking will build the muscles on you leg, or tone them. Which means give them better muscular definition. This will happen regardless of where you body burns the extra calories from the walk. The toning come from the elasticity in your muscle. Good tone less elasticity, no tone loose muscle. As you walk you feel a bit of a burn in your calf or thigh. That is a mixture of small muscle tears and amino acids changing proteins to absorbent material for your body to repair the rips and therefore creating more muscle and compacting it.
Spot reduction is the theory that the area you are exercising burns the fatty tissue surround it. This theory has been proven to be false. Your body stores fat in the most convenient spot for it to access and carry. It also uses it in the same way. Doing sit ups will not burn more fat in the stomach area that say running, walking, or swimming. What it will do is build up the muscles in your abdominal wall underneath any fat that is there and not burnt.
If you want to stimulate your metabolism there are many ways to do this. That is the most tricky to explain because it all depends on your body. Some bodies speed up during a workout session then slow down. Some bodies remember the time to exercise and start burning calories so they are readily available for th body at exercise time. Some bodies actually wait a couple of hours after the body has cooled down to start absorbing calories. For this you will have to test your bodies reaction by seeing how fast you get hungry after eating at different times.

Answer 3

It sounds like a good start!
30 minutes moderate intensity exercise is good for helping aerobic fitness, but you may need to increase to 45-60 minutes to see weight loss, and include some higher intensity exercise.
A simple way to measure how intensely you're exercising is the talk test - if you can sing while you walk, you're exercising too lightly; if you can carry on a conversation and be slightly out of breath, that's moderate intensity, and if you're too puffed to string a sentance together, you're exercising too strenuously.
You could try looking up target heart rates also, or perceived rates of exertion scales to learn how to get maximum results safely.
You could look up exercise pyramids also - like food pyramids but with recommended times of the different levels of activity - after all, 30 minutes walking shouldn't mean 23 and a half hours inactivity.
Keep thinking of the long term benefits to your health. Even if you don't see dramatic weight loss initially, the exercise combined with a healthy balanced diet will pay off in time, slowly but surely, and the weight is more likely to stay gone with your new lifestyle!
Keep it up and good luck!

Answer 4

Its not really a fast way to lose weight, but will increase the health of your cardiovascular system. If you enjoy it its even better than an hour gritting your teeth at the gym because its also good for stress busting! So you;ll get fitter and feel better. It won't put any strain on your joints either. Keep it up!
A good exercise for your stomach is just tighten your muscles and then relax them, every time you remember, at least 20 times a day. You can do it sitting at your pc and no one will notice.

Answer 5

It's a start. Your legs may devolope some muscle tone, but they will not get bulky. Muscle will help in your weight loss though because it more muscle increases your metoblism and takes up less room than fat. Gradually increase the distance that you are walking and you can also do interval walking (slow for a minute and than pick up the pace to 30 seconds and repeat). It may take awhile, but you will see results in your top half. You could carry 2-3 lb weights for added intensity. Keep it up!

Answer 6

Walking will not build excess muscle mass in your legs. If you wish to lose fat, then you need to get your heart rate up to at least 60% of max (this is age dependent) and keep it there for as long as possible. The traditional formula for computing maximum heart rate is 220 - age. The wikipedia article that I referenced will give you more information on the training zones for heart rate. From what I understand, just walking will not do much for your weight loss unless you are walking briskly enough to get your heart rate up. Walking is better on your joints than jogging or running. However, each of these activities will burn more calories and possibly boost your metabolism (which means you will burn more calories while at rest as well).

Eat fewer calories than you are burning and you are bound to lose weight. Eat healthier food and you will lose weight as well.

Answer 7

Walk fast enough to increase your heart rate and make you breathe a little harder. You really need to be doing this kind of exercise for a minimum of 30 minutes at least 3 times a week for it to have an effect on your weight. To improve how hard you work out when you're working why not get wrist and ankle weight and wear them while you're walking and if you swing your arms bruskly as you walk again that increases the exercise.

Answer 8

Building up any muscle will help your whole body. Muscle needs fuel to live, so more muscle means more of the calories you ingest will be burned as fuel, not stored as fat.

Walking is also a good cardio workout, but I would recommend 1/2 an hour or more.

Walking with definitely help your overall health and help you lose weight.

Answer 9

i've found that walking is totally the best way for me to lose weight. i can't run/job becuase of shin splints so i started walking. you won't build big muscles in your legs unless you walk at a pretty high incline. i walk with a moderate incline that i vary throughout my walk at the fastest comfortable speed. you can swing your arms or even carry weights if you are interested in losing weight/toning your upper half. i find that walking does very good things for my hips as well as my waist. good luck!!

Answer 10

It's a great start - but if you want to get that metabolism chugging you need to do cardio-vascular exercise.

Bicycling, jogging, step, aerobics, kickboxing - any of these will get your heart pumping - do them for at least 20 minutes.

The best exercise regimen is to mix cardio with strength training and stretching. There are a ton of books and websites on this subject.

FP

Answer 11

Yes, walking is great for losing weight! I lost 30 lbs this way. It probably depends on how much weight you want to lose, you need to lose weight first then you can tone up etc. Good Luck!!