weight loss by walking

Weight Loss By Walking – Best Time Of Day

Walking is a great low level background form of exercise. You can even achieve some weight loss by walking.

Weight Loss By Walking – Burn Fat Not Food

If you have a walk first thing in the morning, before you’ve broken your fast, your body has to fuel itself from your fat. If you walk after you’ve fuelled up, your body will burn that and not your fat.

Walking at any time is great, but if you want to maximise weight loss by walking – get some of it in before you have breakfast. Learn more here.

I really dislike gadgets that estimate how many calories you burn when you’re exercising. For one they’re not very accurate. But more importantly, they don’t tell you where those calories are coming from. You want them coming from your fat.

The best walk is the one first thing. The next best walk is all the others, no matter how long or short. All steps taken during the day add up to helping you.

Benefits of Walking Outside

Walking outside allows natural daylight to enter your eyes. There are sensors in your retina that communicate with the part of your brain responsible for your sleep/wake cycle.

Exposure to natural daylight, especially in the morning, helps to calibrate your body clock. This helps improve the quality of your sleep. If you’re struggling to lose weight and not getting enough quality sleep – this could be one of the things holding you back.

Learn more about sleep and weight loss.

Walking in nature has been shown to reduce stress. Like sleep, stress is also often overlooked as a factor in weight problems.

Learn more about how stress causes weight gain.

Walking outside in the morning after a glass of water or black tea/coffee will definitely help weight loss by walking:

  • You’ll be fueling yourself from your fat stores, rather than calories you’ve just taken in
  • Your sleep is likely to be that bit better in the coming night
  • You will reduce stress hormones

Walking As The First Step

I look at exercise for health and weight loss in broadly 3 categories – low level background stuff, strength work, and cardiovascular fitness. If you’re not doing very much at all right now – walking is a great entry point.

Fit bits and step counters work really well for some people, because what gets measured has more chance of getting done!

How many steps do you take on an average day? Is it anywhere near 10,000?

Let me know how walking features in your daily life.

Here’s how it features in mine πŸ™‚

Lulu – my everyday walking pal

 

 

 

4 thoughts on “Weight Loss By Walking – Best Time Of Day”

  1. Totally love walking. I’ve gone from barely 300 steps per day to sometimes being over 10,000 (though 6, 000 daily consistently!). Walking is something I can do! Even if it is just for 15 minutes! I agree with the great stress reliever. I love listening to an audio book while I walk. I get more “reading” in while I’m walking. Double bonus!

    Thanks for the continued encouragement!

    Theresa 😎

    1. Dr. Julie Coffey

      Thanks Theresa, so pleased to hear you’re enjoying the blogs. I sometimes to listen to podcasts on a long walk πŸ™‚

  2. Thanks for this! It made me smile when I scrolled down to your photo as I’ve just adopted the most beautiful black greyhound, like yours!! They are amazing walking pals! I’ve always struggled to get outdoors when I’m on my own (even though I love being outdoors with others), but now I’m loving it – with my new pal πŸ™‚ Is it possible for the NHS to prescribe greyhounds for stress??? They ought to! It would save a fortune and bring a lot of smiles to people and doggies πŸ™‚ Enjoy!:)

    1. Dr. Julie Coffey

      Hi Shauna, congratulations on your new friend! They are great for getting you out – I’m out at least twice per day come rain or shine. Yes, I wish I could prescribe them on the NHS (and bring Lulu with me to GP work!)

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