Does Walking More Help You Lose Weight

Does Walking More Help You Lose Weight

Does Walking More Help You Lose Weight - If all you had to was walk more to lose weight naturally, would it be? What if you could walk your way to fat loss? There's a chance you can. Before we get into how walking could help you, let's discuss the basics of weight loss. In weight loss, you have to burn more calories than you consume. That is fundamental.

If you aren't in a calorific deficit, weight loss won't happen. You can achieve this calorie deficit by eating less, moving more or the variety of both. The latter is preferable. Is losing weight as simple as moving more and eating less? Yes and no. If it was that easy, everyone would likely be in great shape. There are additional factors such as motivation, habits, accountability and your environment that we can address.

That said, for the scope of this post, we are just going to cover creating a calorie deficit. Back to how walking could help you lose weight. Does Walking More Help You Lose Weight. 

 Enter NEAT

There's this thing called NEAT (nonexercise activity thermogenesis). NEAT is the total amount of daily activity you accomplish that isn't what you'd class as the exercise. Things like:

1. Walking
2. Doing household chores
3. Standing up and sitting down again
4. Fidgeting

Anything you'd class as not “exercising” but still involves moving will help increase your NEAT.

Does Walking More Help You Lose Weight. In modern society, most people spend the majority of their time sat down behind a desk or while in front of a TV. This means up to now several years the amount the average person moves the whole day has decreased at an alarming rate.

The result? A decrease in NEAT and a rise in obesity.
Now, a decrease in NEAT is not the sole cause of obesity but there's a link between increased NEAT and weight loss. A study performed on overweight adults found that they averaged only 7000 steps per day. This meant they were pretty inactive. The researchers wanted them to increase their steps to 10,000 per day for a time. Everything else was to remain the same. No changes to their diet were made.

What happened?
“The results show that a minimal intervention consisting of a pedometer and a 10,000 steps per day goal can produce weight loss in sedentary, overweight adults.” In 6 months the average adult lost 4.5kg, improved their cholesterol levels and lost several inches from their waist.
All they did was walk more. That's it. No special diet. No super intense workout routine. Just getting into the habit of walking more.

10,000 steps per day.
That seems a good marker to aim for if weight loss is your goal.

What To Do Now
Start tracking the quantity of steps you take – you can use a phone app or pedometer for this
Start increasing the quantity of steps you take daily
Got an hour lunch break at work? Eat and then go for a walk
“Bored” in the evening? Go for a 20-minute stroll
Buy a dog (this makes walking way more fun)
Any opportunity you are able to walk, do so.

Any opportunity you are able to take the stairs instead of the escalator, do it. Any opportunity you are able to get up and move, do it. All these little additions create a big difference over time. That is the simple addition that everyone can introduce into their daily schedule.

Does Walking More Help You Lose Weight. Start walking more, start losing more weight.