By Bro. Dr. Maurice K. Dola, GK Council 10
Any exercise is good exercise, but when it comes to losing weight, it’s hard to beat running or brisk walking. After all, it is one of the most efficient ways to burn calories and get fit without having to restrict your diet. If you’re already a runner, keep on keepin’ on. If you’re not a runner yet but interested in losing weight, here are eight reasons brisk walking can be the best exercise for your weight loss
1. Brisk Walking works even when you’re at rest. High-intensity exercise like running or brisk walking stimulates more “afterburn” than low-intensity exercise. That is, even when comparing brisk walking with other exercises, studies find that brisk walking will lead to greater weight loss, most likely because your resting energy expenditure stays elevated after you are done. In a long-term comparison study of brisk walkers and weight lifters calories burned through brisk walking led to 90% more weight loss than calories burned through weight lifting
2. Brisk Walking is time-efficient and convenient. Running a mile and walking a mile burn the same number of calories even though running is a considerably faster way to burn those calories. Most people can brisk walk two or three times as far as they can run in a given amount of time Little is actually required to go brisk walking. You can do it alone. You can do it almost anywhere. You don’t need any equipment beyond a pair of running shoes. For this reason alone, brisk walking is the best workout for weight loss because it’s cheap, it’s accessible, and there are fewer barriers to maintaining a routine, even while traveling.
3. Two words: The first rule of exercising for weight loss is that if you don’t enjoy it, you won’t stick to it. Fortunately, studies support what many brisk walkers have experienced on an anecdotal level. Brisk walking can actually get you high. Scientists have found links between moderate to intense exercise and morphine-like brain chemicals called endocannabinoids, which suggest endorphins alone aren’t responsible for the occasional flood of euphoria that rushes over you during a hard run. That happy sensation you had after your last race makes you want to go for another, right?
4. Brisk Walking helps your brain grow.
Brisk walking stimulates the creation of new nerve cells and blood vessels within the brain, an organ that tends to shrink as a person ages. Also, studies have shown that brisk walking may help increase the volume of the midbrain (which controls vision and hearing) and the hippocampus (which is linked to memory and learning).
5. Brisk Walking helps your brain age better.
In addition to preventing or reversing age-related shrinkage, brisk walking affects brain chemicals in a way that sets walkers up to have healthier-than-average brains later in life. A study last year measured neural markers and cognitive function in middle-aged athletes and non-athletes, and while the cognitive function scores were the same, researchers found the athletes’ brains showed greater metabolic efficiency and neural plasticity.
6. Brisk Walking boosts your ability to learn and recall information.
Another 2012 study found that at least moderately fit people did better on memory tests than those who were less fit (or not fit at all). This adds to earlier research that links brisk walking to a better ability to focus, to juggle multiple tasks, and to make distinctions.
7. Brisk Walking conditions your brain to store more fuel.
You already knew that training conditions your muscles to store more fuel, but a recent study suggests that your brain adapts in the same way. Researchers believe these larger glycogen stores in the brain may be one of the reasons running or brisk walking boosts cognitive function.
8. Brisk Walking, especially in nature, helps keep your brain full of feel-good chemicals.
Exercise promotes the release of the feel-good chemicals called endorphins. Additionally, like many antidepressant medications, running or brisk walking helps your brain hold on to mood-boosting neurotransmitters serotonin and norepinephrine. For best results, run or brisk walk in quiet, green spaces instead of on crowded streets — a study last year found people in parks experienced brain activity similar to that seen during meditation, while people on streets experienced frustration.
You might be able to lose weight depending on the duration and intensity of your walking and what your diet’s like. But eating fewer calories through dietary changes seems to promote weight loss more effectively than does physical activity.
If you add 30 minutes of brisk walking to your daily routine, you could burn about 150 more calories a day. Of course, the more you walk and the quicker your pace, the more calories you’ll burn.
To reap the most health benefits from exercise, your exercise intensity must generally be at a moderate or vigorous level. For weight loss, the more intense your exercise, or the longer you exercise, the more calories you burn. However, balance is important. Overdoing it can increase your risk of soreness, injury and burnout. If you’re new to regular exercise and physical activity, you may need to start out at a light intensity and gradually build up to a moderate or vigorous intensity.
Once you’ve lost weight, exercise is even more important — it’s what helps keep the weight off. In fact, studies show that people who maintain their weight loss over the long term get regular physical activity. So keep walking, but make sure you also follow a healthy diet.