Losing weight is a matter of consuming fewer calories than you burn.  Once a healthy diet is planned it’s time to get down to exercise.  This means 30 minutes a day seven days a week of aerobic work.  It can be running on a treadmill, swimming, or even walking to lose weight.  Walking is a tolerable, low impact way to accomplish this goal and more importantly to stick with it for a long time.  Here are a few walking tips.

Forget the idea of only three or five days a week, aerobic exercise is something you need to do every day forever.

But then more can be added.  Additional activity, outside that 30 minutes a day seven days a week, is easy.  Park the car further from the store or office, then walk.  Instead of gobbling a bagel while riding the elevator up to your floor, enjoy a banana while walking up the stairs.  When it’s time to rid the yard of leaves use the old fashioned hand rake rather than the leaf blower.  Muscle power is activity and that burns calories.  If you have kids get involved in their games of tag, or chase.  They’ll love it and so will your health.

Intervals can be added once the walking has been established.  Intervals are short bursts of increased activity sprinkled into a normal routine.  Start out by running for 30 seconds every 10 minutes of the walk.  Gradually up this to a one minute run every five minutes, which would work like this.  You walk for the first four minutes, then run for the fifth, then walk the next four minutes, run the next minute, and so on for the entire 30 minutes.  Keep in mind that a run is not a jog, it’s faster, like a sprint.  So if you have to work up to run with jog at first. After a short period of walking run, then walk again, then go back to running.  Start out running once or twice in a 30 minute walk, then up it to more often until you’re walking 4 minutes then running 1 minute  It’s not really difficult.

Walking to lose weight is healthy, no doubt.  But it’s also a terrific way to get around the neighborhood, meet neighbors, and see things you probably miss while driving around everywhere you go.  If it gets boring you can ask a spouse or family member to walk with you.  Make it a family affair, or get the whole neighborhood involved.