Active Low-Carber Forums - Comfort Walking

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Walk off 45 Pounds
Faster! * Easier! * With more slimming results!
Experts reveal the new no-sweat trick that maximizes fat burning.

From: Woman's World, March 25, 2003, page 18
By: Beth Cochran & Wendy Korn

Forget "power" walking. Comfort walking is the hot new science-backed trend that's shrinking women everywhere. Kristian Alfonso did it while chatting with family and girlfriends. Now she's about 45 pounds lighter. Laura did it while listening to Harry Potter tapes and babying her bad knees. Now she's 3 sizes smaller. Anne did it on her lunch hour, never got a speck of perspiration on her work clothes -- and dropped from a size 14 to a 4 in three months. Read on to learn how you can get the same great results...

About seven months ago, Kristian Alfonso had just started in on a huge plate of bacon and eggs when she felt a little twinge. Make that a big twinge. "I went into labor, but that didn't stop me from eating. I just said, 'Pass the salt, please,' " laughs the Days of Our Lives star. "I've struggled with my weight my whole life -- people who remember me from years ago know I've gone up and down by 20 - 30 pounds.

"So once I had license to eat for two, well... let's just say there'd been times when I'd have an icecream cone in one hand and an icecream sandwich in the other. I'd have ribs delivered to my dressingroom for lunch and then go home to a big dinner of steak and potatoes. I am a quantity eater." She also gained quite a quantity of weight -- very little of which disappeared after her son, Jack, was born. "I had 43 pounds to lose," sighs Kristian, whose brood also includes attorney-husband Danny, son Gino, 12, and stepson Spartan, nine. "I had to keep telling myself not to panic." That's when her doctor stepped in with a soothing, slimming suggestion: go for a nice walk -- nice being the operative word ...

Proof that "comfort walking" burns the most fat:

Exercise experts have long known that we're naturally most comfortable walking along at about three miles per hour -- a pace that's a bit brisker than a stroll, yet significantly slower than a power-walk. Until recently, however, they figured this particular speed felt so good because our bodies didn't have to work very hard to maintain it. Translation: a comfortable pace didn't burn many calories. Now an Arizona State University research team has turned that notion on its head. Their brand-new evidence shows that our bodies actually prefer a three-m.p.h. pace because that's when it can most easily access our richest source of fuel: stored fat.

After monitoring volunteers as they walked on treadmills, the ASU scientists determined that as our pace quickens, stored fat can't be released and converted to energy quickly enough to keep up with the body's needs. "You can only burn fat so fast," explains lead researcher Wayne Willis, Ph.D., who notes that when test subjects increased their pace from three m.p.h. to a modest four m.p.h., total calories burned increased only slightly, but eight times more of those calories were drawn from sources other than stored fat. "At three m.p.h., the average person has enough fat stores to fuel a 1,000-mile walk. At four m.p.h., our bodies only have the resources to fuel us for about 50 miles, so it makes sense that our bodies feel best when we're burning more fat, "Willis adds.

"It's not about sweating, but just moving," says Kristian, who was skinny in no time, despite her easy-does-it pace. "It only took me about three months to lose it all. And I took the word 'diet' out of my vocabulary. Diets never worked for me anyway. I just started eating sensibly and made it all about moving. I walked with my friends, my husband, the kids. I went with what I felt my body could handle." Of course, Kristian isn't the only one melting fat in complete and total comfort...

Check out these amazing success stories!

"I had gone up three pants sizes, and I was disgusted with myself," recalls New York mom Laura Levin. So six months before her 40th birthday, the elementary school teacher decided to start a gentle walking regimen. "I wasn't sure my plan was tough enough to work, but I have knee problems and a heel spur, so I couldn't do anything more strenuous. And I knew from past experience that I need to be active to take pounds off." She started out with a few 20-minutes sessions and worked her way up to five 45-minute sessions a week. "I feel self-conscious, so I don't do weird things with my arms or anything when I walk," she says. Even so, when she blew out the candles on her cake, she was wearing a size 6!

Port Washington, New York, homemaker Erika Stehl says she tried walking because it was the only workout that let her take her kids along. "When my oldest went to kindergarten, I could put the two little ones in the stroller. It wasn't even a jogging stroller. I started out really slow and picked up the pace as I got stronger," says the 34-year-old, who dropped 16 pounds in no time flat.

Meanwhile, Queens social worker Anne Benroubi decided she'd try sneaking off some weight during her lunch hour. "I didn't tell anyone what I was doing, so there was no pressure. I'd just go out and walk for 45 minutes to an hour," says the 32-year-old. "It wasn't a sweating workout, which meant I could wear my regular clothes. It was so much easier than the gym. It cleared my head and was my quiet time. I didn't even feel like I was trying hard." Nonetheless, "I went from wearing a 14 to fitting into some size fours in three months!"

If that's not enough to convince you to try walking off the weight, here's even more incentive...

3 more breakthrough tricks that make comfort walking even easier and more effective.

Think it can't get any easier than comfort walking? Think again! Researches have found three more ways to make your workout feel like a cakewalk...

Listening to music. Grab your Walkman before you head out the door, and you'll likely end up going farther, burning more calories and never even noticing the extra exertion. So say researchers at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, who tracked volunteers' distance traveled and perceived rate of exertion as they exercised to music and in silence. The experts speculate that having something to listen to put folks in a better mood and distracted them so much that it took them longer to think about stopping.

"I had a little radio that I'd plug into my ear. I liked listening to classical music," says Kristian. "It definitely makes the time go faster, takes our mind off it, and makes you feel like you're not really exercising." Laura got the same results, only instead of choosing tunes, she listened to books on tape. "My favorites are the Harry Potter books," she says. "That way, I never get bored."

Working with your menstrual cycle. A new Australian study has found that our bodies are actually able to burn more fat with less fatigue from the day we ovulate -- about 14 days before menstruation begins -- until the first day of our period. The reason: hormones. "Circulating estrogen allows more stored fat to be released," explains lead researcher Leanne Redman of the University of Adelaide in Australia. "Plus, burning fat for fuel produces less lactic acid than burning other forms of fuel -- and lactic acid is the primary cause of muscle pain and that 'wiped out' feeling after workouts." While the pro doesn't recommend scheduling all your exercise during this fat-burning stage of your cycle, you should be able to lengthen your sessions during this time and burn lots of bonus fat without feeling tired.

"I also find that exercise helps relieve PMS symptoms, especially bloating and chocolate cravings," says Laura.

Skipping indoor workouts. Sure, that treadmill or yoga video are great options when the weather's bad. But now that spring is budding, simply heading outdoors will make workout time feel extra easy. A recent study found that folks who exercise outside routinely underestimated the calorie-burning power of their workouts because they felt so effortless. Again, distraction is key; we're too busy looking at the scenery to pay attention to our effort.

Erika says she definitely shed pounds faster when walking paths near her home that when using her treadmill. Adds Anne: "I walked near the beach, so it was nice and breezy -- never too hot. It made me feel like I wasn't exercising at all." And Kristian takes full advantage of LA's year-round sunshine. "I love being outside and walking, whether I'm trying to lose weight or not," she says. "There were times my husband would have to talk me into exercising, but on the way back I'd be thanking him because I felt so invigorated." Another thing that invigorates Kristian: trying on outfits once so tight, "I had no business buying them, let alone wearing them," she laughs. "Now I have to keep taking them in. It's a great feeling!"

Wish you could feel that great? You can! New York fitness expert Laura McDonald has whipped up a suggested schedule to help get you started. All you have to do is lace up your sneaks and take it one comfortable step at a time!

Your get-started guide to Walking off the weight:

The key to burning maximum fat is keeping your pace comfortable and never getting winded. says New York City personal trainer Laura McDonald. And for most people that means...

If you're a beginner: start with 20-minute sessions, two to three times a week, and gradually work up to 30- to 45-minute sessions, four to six times a week.

If you're already active: start with 45-minute sessions four times a week and gradually work up to 60-minute sessions six times a week.

Stay-safe tips for all walkers:

Don't overdo it. Always stop and rest if you feel overheated. Never push yourself to exhaustion.

Stay hydrated. Even at a moderate pace, dehydration can sneak up on you. The best way to avoid it, say experts, is drinking plenty of water -- 1 to 3 large glasses -- before you start. Then sip from a water bottle as you go.

Choose the right kind of shoes. They should offer comfortable arch and heel support and be designed for walking, say pros. Highly rated: Nike Walker A.S. III, Easy Spirit Classia New Balance W755.

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;-Deb