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Doctors and healthcare specialists agree - fitness walking is an excellent choice for losing weight: it allows your muscles to burn calories by using your fat reserves.
However, do you know how much walking you need to do to lose weight and keep it off?
In order to start to lose weight, you need to reach the 'endurance zone', between 60 and 70% of your Maximum Heart Rate. It is at this point that most of the calories burnt come from fat, to power your muscles, which are in need of energy.
In order to reach this zone and burn some calories, you need to walk at a fast pace, between 5 and 8km/h.
The 'endurance zone' signs
If you are breathless, then you are walking too quickly! Slow down to find a pace that suits you.
In order to burn calories from fat, you need to keep up that speed for a minimum of 30 to 50 minutes, after having warmed up with a 10-minute walk at your natural pace.
It is generally accepted that a person weighing around 70kg will burn an average of 300 calories after 1 hour of fitness walking at 6 km/h.
You will thus develop your muscles, especially your thighs and buttocks, which will consume more calories, even at rest.
The most important thing to do to lose weight through 1h of fitness walking is to train regularly, without losing muscles, like on a diet. Muscles burn calories naturally.
They then develop through your exertions in the endurance zone and consume more. This is the virtuous circle of fitness walking, provided you stay motivated!
Please note: muscles have their own weight and, as they develop, the fat you burn may not be visible on the scales.
This is why it is preferable to focus on the change in waist size, which you can record in your training log, rather than weight, as recommended by the sports physician, Charles Aisenberg.
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