Walk-Don’t Run To Lose Weight
I have always prefered walking to running. Walking is so much easier, you don’t get sweaty, you can do it for longer and it doesn’t tire you out like running does. Also, not being a “fitness fanatic” or a masochist, I prefer the painless way to weight loss. While walking is great for fat burning (you’ll learn why later), it is also what I belive to be a “civilised” way to exercise. For instance, you can take in the scenery while walking through the park or the streets, engage in witty conversation and look great while working out. The sweaty, winded look was never very attractive to me.
So, imagine my delight when I found out that boxing champion Ricky Hatton prefers walking to running! Of course, he must run as part of his training, but when he needs to lose weight (he’s a light welterweight boxer) what does he turn to? Walking!
The Times Online reports:
“But why is he such a devotee of walking? “I walk all the time, particularly on the day of a fight”, he says. “You can burn as many calories walking as you can running. I just put my coat on and do a steady two or three miles.”
“Although running is a key part of any professsional boxer’s regimen — Hatton runs about six miles a day at its peak — he sees walking as equally important. He stops running altogether the week before a fight. Not only does running increase the risk of injury to the joints, but there comes a point where it doesn’t make you any fitter than walking.
Hatton’s nutritionist, Kerry Kayes, a former bodybuilding champion, has cheering words for those whose hearts sink at the prospect of jogging. “Sometimes people don’t see the bigger picture,” he says. “The average person who wants to lose weight is probably a bit overweight and so the chances are they aren’t fit. Even an athlete who goes out and starts running can end up with injuries like shin splints. So other people end up with all kinds of problems like aching hips and legs from all that pounding. You see overweight people running down the road and you can see the agony they are in.”
Kayes says much of fitness and weight loss is common sense. It is obvious that you will burn more calories in five minutes of running than in five minutes of walking. But the point is that most people can run only for five minutes yet they can walk for 40 minutes.
“The body burns slow and fast fuels”, he adds. “You eat complex carbohydrates and the body stores it in the muscles as glycogen.”
When you suddenly start doing vigorous exercise requiring a quick source of energy the body will burn the glycogen. If, however, you exercise at a steady pace it will turn to body fat for fuel.
During training Kayes insists that Hatton consumes his total calories for the day in five separate meals. Eating little but often is the key to ensuring that the body is not overloaded with calories. “Your metabolism is not (defined by) how many calories you metabolise a day. It is how many you metabolise per meal,” he adds. Refreshingly, he sees no big problem with boxers relaxing their regimes for weeks at a time. “
So, five meals a day and a nice long walk will get you on the road to fitness.