If you’d like to lose the fat around your midsection, there’s simply no getting around improving your diet.
But when it comes to exercise, you may be surprised to learn that you don’t need to be logging long hours at the gym, lifting heavy weights or running many kilometres every day to see the results you desire.
If you prefer walking, it may interest you to know that a routine of brisk walking can get you a flatter stomach.
Wondering how this is possible?
One research on the effects of walking on obese women found that it was particularly effective at reducing belly fat, among other health benefits and another research found that men and women between the ages of 40 and 65 who lived sedentary lifestyles managed to lose weight when they walked for 12 miles every week. In the case of the latter study, the study participants didn’t meaningfully alter their diets.
Fitness experts, however, say to achieve results, there are tips and tricks to follow. See them below
1. Take a walk after a big meal: This helps with nutrient absorption, lowers insulin response, and helps distribute your calories as fuel instead of fat.
2. Break up your walks with rapid-fire bodyweight moves:
Fast walking, long-distance walking, walking uphill, weighted walking, walking upstairs, and doing different exercises while walking, like walking lunges or some upper body exercises, all can help you burn more calories while walking.
If you’re game, break up your walks with squats, lunges, or pushups, all of which will elevate your heart rate even further, increase your conditioning, and help you transform your walk into a killer workout.
3. Be mindful of genetics and stay patient:
For losing more fat while walking, “you should continue what you’re doing with a focus on burning more calories on each walk. Don’t be demotivated and think you’re doing something wrong if you’re not losing belly fat as quickly as your friend or partner, despite doing the same walks—it’s genetics.
4. Wear a weighted vest:
Wearing a weighted vest while doing cardiovascular activities helps train the body with aerobic and anaerobic benefits. Due to the additional added weight of the vest, the heart will pump harder, increasing the aerobic capacity and your VO2 max, while postural muscles will help build core strength.
5. Supplement your walking regimen with strength training:
Experts say performing aerobic exercise is better for losing weight than strength training—but combined you’ll lose even more. If your goal is weight loss, aerobic exercise (walking or running) burns a statistically significant more amount of fat than weight lifting. However, when combining both aerobic exercise and lifting weights for a total of 30 minutes a day, 5 times a week, people lose significantly more.
6. Do walking intervals
Interval walking provides a better calorie burn than steady-state, or casual, walking because it elevates the heart rate into the proper zone. By varying the speed of your walk, especially adding in some faster pace interval work, you raise your heart rate and increase your caloric expenditure, helping you lose more weight over time
