Walk a little, lose a lot!

Get rid of those stubborn kilos with three simple walking workouts

Walking is a great way to get in shape – we do it every day and yet we take it for granted, not realising that it’s actually a powerful tool for long-term weight loss. The best part? You can start from right where you are, whether you’re a newbie or an experienced exerciser who has hit a plateau that needs shifting. It’s easy to do and is proven to help you get fit and trim down.

Striding out is a simple, effective routine that fits any lifestyle and you can change the pace to suit you. This is especially useful as the evidence clearly shows that short, sharp bursts of exercise can rev our metabolism even more effectively than longer ones. But you don’t have to be an avid gym goer to make the most of high intensity interval training (often referred to as HIIT) – it works for walking, too. Scientists at the University of NSW discovered that women who exercised for just 20 minutes – alternating between short bursts of high intensity with minutes of steady-paced activity, lost three times as much weight as those who exercised for 40 minutes at a steady pace. In that study, the 20-minute walkers lost up to 9kg over a 15-week period, three times as much as the longer steady-paced exercisers. And they lost most weight off their legs and buttocks.

The simple program that follows will lighten your body, decrease stress and give you the motivation to keep going strong. Let’s get walking!