Walking and Metabolic Fitness

What Walking Can Do to Your Metabolic Fitness 

We all know that taking that brisk walk for 15-30 minutes a day will do you good. However, a lot of us have not thought about making walking a daily habit. What we do not know is that walking can actually improve our metabolic fitness tremendously. 

Our metabolism is like the clockwork in our system. It determines the speed upon which our body assimilates the nutrients that we take in through food and the speed upon which we burn all the excess amounts of carbohydrates, fats and proteins. Therefore, the speed of our metabolism determines our weight. The faster the metabolism of an individual, the faster she will burn calories and the faster all the processes in our body are taking place. 

Once we have developed the habit of taking walks daily, we are actually improving our metabolic fitness. We could lose weight if we do brisk walking instead of slow walking. Brisk walking is not as strenuous as running yet it gives us a lot of advantages in terms of losing weight and improving our metabolic rate. 

It is important though, just like in any other form of exercise, that brisk walking is accompanied by a well-balanced diet, staying within our daily caloric needs. If we are eating more, brisk walking is not enough. Other forms of exercise should be incorporated too. 

Before starting on your program, it would help if you had a goal in mind. First, your goal, like losing weight, should be realistic enough. That means it should be achievable and would not be too much that it would cause disappointment or too low so that seeing the change is not so obvious. 

It should also be measurable. This means that you ser a certain number of miles of walking each day or setting a 30-minute brisk walk should be enough. You should also think how many pounds you actually want to lose. It is important then to keep track of your progress by weighing yourself daily and recording each measurement. 

To enhance your metabolic fitness, it would be good to do an incremental addition to your walking, like increasing the number of miles or the number of minutes of brisk walking. Increments should not be more than 10-15% weekly so that injuries to muscles and other body parts should be avoided. 

It has been found that increasing the metabolic rate of an individual has markedly improved the circulation, blood pressure and the health of the heart. Cardiac output is increased and weight loss steadily increased as well. The percentage of body fat has also been found to decrease. Even the waist circumference has been markedly decreased. 

The increase in the presence of high-density lipoproteins (good cholesterol) in the body has heightened the ability of the body to remove low-density lipoprotein (bad cholesterol). With the change in appetite that accompanies increased metabolic fitness, the general health of the walker has also improved. 

Another added point to improving metabolic fitness is the enhancement of the individual’s psychological well-being. What’s more is that, with continued weight loss, people into brisk walking, have taken dieting and exercise more seriously, being bent on maintaining the new profile. With the new body image, eating behavior and energy levels have improved tremendously, and appreciation a better self is immeasurable. 

Walking has been a popular option for sometime because of the steady increase in obese patients. The benefits one gets from this non-strenuous, low-impact exercise are countless so that more and more obese patients have taken walking seriously. Obese patients are now less prone to common problems like heart disease, hypertension and even diabetes. 

Not only the obese benefit from walking. Geriatric patients, as a whole, are also delighted with the effects walking has done to their bodies. Aside from it being quite exhilarating, it also proved to be one social activity. They take joy from just walking in parks and being able to mingle with people from all walks of life. Somehow, they have also improved their body image. 

Walking may not seem to be interesting to some, but getting the hang of it will bring numerous benefits to your well-being. Find every opportunity to walk. Instead of taking the car, why not walk to your destination. Make sure you do it briskly to reap the full benefit of this wonderful exercise.

>>> Table of Contents

Walking News:

MSN

Warning: require_once(/home/amhpages/public_html/rss/carp/carp.php) [function.require-once]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/melissa/public_html/healthypages/ebooks/walking-for-life/rssfeed-msn-5-walking.php on line 10

Fatal error: require_once() [function.require]: Failed opening required '/home/amhpages/public_html/rss/carp/carp.php' (include_path='.:/usr/lib/php:/usr/local/lib/php') in /home/melissa/public_html/healthypages/ebooks/walking-for-life/rssfeed-msn-5-walking.php on line 10

Google

Warning: require_once(/home/amhpages/public_html/rss/carp/carp.php) [function.require-once]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/melissa/public_html/healthypages/ebooks/walking-for-life/rssfeed-google-5-walking.php on line 10

Fatal error: require_once() [function.require]: Failed opening required '/home/amhpages/public_html/rss/carp/carp.php' (include_path='.:/usr/lib/php:/usr/local/lib/php') in /home/melissa/public_html/healthypages/ebooks/walking-for-life/rssfeed-google-5-walking.php on line 10

Yahoo!

Warning: require_once(/home/amhpages/public_html/rss/carp/carp.php) [function.require-once]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/melissa/public_html/healthypages/ebooks/walking-for-life/rssfeed-yahoo-5-walking.php on line 10

Fatal error: require_once() [function.require]: Failed opening required '/home/amhpages/public_html/rss/carp/carp.php' (include_path='.:/usr/lib/php:/usr/local/lib/php') in /home/melissa/public_html/healthypages/ebooks/walking-for-life/rssfeed-yahoo-5-walking.php on line 10