Wednesday, January 7, 2009

How to Achieve Easy Fat Loss with Treadmill Walking

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.

The important thing to remember is to keep up to your walking on a regular basis. You will find it extremely hard to control your weight if you do not exercise consistently. It is also important to bear in mind that walking around your local area may not be enough, especially if you live in a flat area.

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 is a neat little game which is sure to keep you mentally active as well as physically active. You can play this game over the course of your workout; basically when you are doing your treadmill walking, increase the speed by 0.1mph every minute. Do this for half of your workout session, and then for the second half of your session you decrease the speed by 0.1 mph.

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: This is a fun little game where you map out the favorite routes through your neighborhood and then imagine yourself walking there while you're doing your treadmill walking. What I did was actually record my journey through a local park on my camcorder, and then I watch this while doing my exercise and it's like being outdoors no matter what the weather.

Remember, exercise is a very personal thing, so just be creative and come up with your own little games and techniques to make sure that your workout is always fun! - 16650

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