Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Treadmill Walking for Easy Fat Loss

By Torii Tompson

Losing weight is not as hard as it may seem - one really simple way to work off weight and burn that extra fat is by treadmill walking. The key to easy fat loss is to simply burn more calories than you take in through your food.

There seems to be an urban legend that leads many people to believe that by walking for a short distance a few times per week they can effectively lose weight. This is certainly not the case; to easily lose weight through walking you would have to walk for about 45 minutes almost every single day.

It's important to be consistent with your walking schedule and do it on a regular basis if you want to control your weight. Trying to walk around your neighborhood on a flat surface can be ineffective, too.

By adjusting the incline, or slope of a treadmill, you can give yourself a much more intense exercise session. The increased incline will not only increase your heart rate, but will also make your muscles work a lot harder, and therefore burn more fat.

If you engage in treadmill walking on a consistent basis, you'll not only be able to lose the pounds, but they will stay off for good. If a treadmill walking workout tends to bore you, here are some ideas to make it more interesting:

Walk the Pyramid: This game challenges you both physically and mentally for a total of 30 minutes. Whenever you're walking on your treadmill, increase the speed by .1 mph every 15 minutes. Do this for half of your workout and then decrease the speed .1 mph for the other 15 minutes.

1,2,3 Counting Steps: Instead of obessing over the time clock on the treadmill display, count your steps. You can count your steps for one minute then take a break and do it again for another minute. It will pass the time and as you became more fit you'll notice the number of steps you count will increase, which should motivate you.

Step and Walk: This is an excellent technique because it combines all the benefits of using a treadmill with other forms of exercise. Split your workout into equal segments, chunks of 5 or 10 minutes are good. Now, walk on your treadmill for the first segment. Then get off the machine and do another exercise for the next segment - such as using a stepper, lifting weights or perhaps using a rowing machine. Then return to your treadmill for the third segment and repeat throughout your workout.

Travel the World: There's a famous scene in the movie Forest Gump where Hanks puts on a pair of shoes and just walks. I find it's fun to map out my favorite routes around my neighborhood and then see how long it takes me to walk there on my treadmill. You can even put up photographs of local landmarks and take yourself on a virtual tour of your area!

Don't be afraid to come up with your own games to make treadmill walking less boring. Not everyone is enthusiastic about exercise, but you can put a spin on things to make time go by faster. - 16752

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