2578: [Part 1] Walking For Weight Loss? How To Lose Weight With Walking (Seriously) by JC Deen of JCD Fitness

[00:00:00] Delicious meets nutritious in the snack that packs a real protein punch, Wonderful Pistachios.

[00:00:05] Each 1oz serving of Wonderful Pistachios has 6g of protein, giving you over 10% of your daily value

[00:00:12] and making Wonderful Pistachios one of the highest protein nuts. But perhaps more than that,

[00:00:18] I love all of the flavors they have. Their sea salt and vinegar ones are my favorite when I'm

[00:00:22] craving that flavor but want to keep it healthy. But that's just the tip of the iceberg. Wonderful

[00:00:27] Pistachios come in a variety of flavors like chili roasted, honey roasted, smoky barbecue,

[00:00:33] and jalapeno lime, perfect for enjoying with family and friends or taking them with you on

[00:00:39] the go. Whether you're a pistachio purist who loves cracking open every nut or you prefer the

[00:00:45] convenience of no-shells pistachios, Wonderful Pistachios has got you covered. Grab Wonderful

[00:00:51] Pistachios and elevate your snacking game today. So fill up with a healthy snack when hunger

[00:00:56] strikes. Visit wonderfulpistachios.com to learn more. That's wonderfulpistachios.com.

[00:01:04] Have you ever noticed how a calm mind can really set the stage for a good night's sleep?

[00:01:09] That's the idea behind our new podcast, Good Sleep. Greg, our host from Optimal Relationships

[00:01:15] Daily is here to help ease you into a peaceful night's rest with some positive affirmations.

[00:01:20] And these affirmations aren't just comforting, they can help ease anxiety and nurture positive

[00:01:26] thoughts, setting you up for true good sleep. So press play on Good Sleep tonight because a

[00:01:33] good tomorrow starts with a good night's sleep. Just search for Good Sleep in your podcast app

[00:01:39] and be sure to pick the one from Optimal Living Daily. This is Optimal Health Daily, episode 2578,

[00:01:47] Walking for Weight Loss, How to Lose Weight with Walking Seriously, part 1 by JC Dean of

[00:01:53] jcdfitness.com. And I'm your host and personal narrator, Dr. Neil. Hey there, happy middle of

[00:02:00] the week Wednesday and welcome to another edition of Optimal Health Daily where I read some of the

[00:02:05] best blogs covering health and fitness just like an audiobook and always with a bit of my commentary

[00:02:11] at the end. Now since today is Wednesday, I'd like to share an inspirational quote with you.

[00:02:17] That's because for some of us, Wednesday represents the middle of the week and we may need that little

[00:02:22] extra motivation to get through the next couple of days. So with that, here's today's inspiration.

[00:02:29] Quote, Make each day your masterpiece. John Wooden. Now, today's post is a bit longer than what I

[00:02:38] typically narrate so I'll read the first half today and then finish up the rest for you tomorrow.

[00:02:43] So with that, let's get right to part 1 as we optimize your life. Walking for Weight Loss,

[00:02:54] How to Lose Weight with Walking, Seriously, part 1 by JC Dean of jcdfitness.com.

[00:03:02] Walking is one of the easiest forms of exercise to implement into your daily life and it comes

[00:03:07] with almost zero negative effects. We'll touch on that in a second. But walking for weight loss?

[00:03:14] What if you could simply lose weight by doing nothing but adding some regular walking to your

[00:03:18] week? If it sounds too good to be true, have no worries because walking is the most underrated

[00:03:25] form of exercise and you're going to learn exactly why. Quickly, here are a few benefits of regular

[00:03:31] walking. It burns calories. It's an easy form of exercise. It gets you outdoors. It improves

[00:03:38] recovery from hard workouts. It helps you relieve stress. And it improves mobility in the hips.

[00:03:45] How does walking help you lose weight? In short, walking burns calories and at the end of the day,

[00:03:51] weight loss is all about burning more calories than you consume. Walking on average can burn

[00:03:56] around 100 calories per mile. It will be slightly more if you run but not by much. I prefer walking

[00:04:03] over running and we'll get to why in a bit. Your individual calorie burn will be dependent

[00:04:09] on many factors so keep in mind the average. Also, keep in mind that walking alone is not the

[00:04:15] key to weight loss because you can walk all day long while consuming very energy-dense foods and

[00:04:21] you won't end up losing weight. However, walking can be an amazing addition to your weight loss plan

[00:04:27] because while it's a very low impact activity, the calorie burn adds up over time. In fact,

[00:04:34] it's the main type of cardio I recommend to my personal coaching clients as well as what I

[00:04:39] recommend in my fitness programs for two reasons. One, it encourages recovery, improving blood flow

[00:04:46] to the entire body and two, walking is a low intensity activity so it doesn't cut into recovery

[00:04:52] that's required for weight training. Often, I met with a little bit of pushback because walking

[00:04:58] is not as intense as long jogging, sprinting or biking and that's kind of the point. Certain

[00:05:05] forms of cardio such as long-distance running and sprinting are what we call high-impact activities

[00:05:11] meaning they can be very hard on your joints and muscles. As a result, these activities take longer

[00:05:17] to recover from than walking alone. If you've ever gone on a long run or decided to sprint up

[00:05:24] some stairs, you've probably felt sore in the days following similar to how you might feel after

[00:05:29] a hard weight training workout. And when your main goal is weight loss, the process comes down

[00:05:35] to the following principles – maintaining a caloric deficit, being able to recover adequately from

[00:05:41] your exercise of choice and this is the big one – being consistent over time. Why walking works

[00:05:49] for weight loss? The body has two energy systems – stored glycogen reserved for intense activities

[00:05:56] like weight training, sprinting, biking and so on and body fat reserved for low intensity activities.

[00:06:03] Pretty much everything outside of intense exercise would fall in this category. Did you know that

[00:06:09] you're burning body fat right now while you sit here listening to this article? Your body is

[00:06:13] constantly burning fat for energy. The only time it's not is right after a meal and during intense

[00:06:20] exercise. Regular walking pretty much burns mostly fat similar to how you would burn fat for energy

[00:06:26] while resting. The only difference is walking burns more energy over a given time period than sitting

[00:06:32] still. When you couple regular walking with a caloric deficit, you will burn fat more quickly

[00:06:38] than dieting alone. And better yet, when you combine weight training 2-4 times per week with

[00:06:43] your regular walking, you turn into a fat-burning machine. And the best part is this type of weight

[00:06:49] loss plan requires no long runs, no hard sprinting routines and almost zero risks of getting overuse

[00:06:57] injuries or joint problems from all the high impact that running on hard surfaces creates.

[00:07:03] Not only will walking help you lose weight, it can be incredibly beneficial for your overall

[00:07:07] well-being. I tend to walk around 30-60 minutes each day and I have a ton of notes on my phone

[00:07:14] from all the ideas that tend to come to me while walking. As a result of my research for this

[00:07:19] article, I found some interesting health benefits that come from walking, all backed by scientific

[00:07:24] research, although we don't need studies to know that walking is good for us. Random health benefits

[00:07:30] of walking 1. Walking boosts creative thinking

[00:07:35] Quote, All truly great thoughts are conceived by walking. Nietzsche

[00:07:41] If you've ever gone on a walk, especially a lonesome stroll, you're likely to remember having

[00:07:46] come up with great ideas or maybe you just had a good think about something that's been weighing

[00:07:50] on you heavily. It may come as no surprise to you, it did to me, but walking has been scientifically

[00:07:57] studied and shown to give a boost to creative thinking. There's an interesting body-mind

[00:08:02] connection and it seems for us to do our best thinking, it's best we be moving. Not even just

[00:08:08] walking but any type of movement can be good for getting the brain going. 2. Walking has been shown

[00:08:15] to lower blood pressure One study showed that 30 minutes of walking lowered blood pressure

[00:08:21] in postmenopausal women. If you're not a postmenopausal woman, no worries, you're a human

[00:08:26] just like them. 3. Walking could boost mood and energy

[00:08:32] At California State University, Long Beach, they conducted a case study by giving students a

[00:08:37] pedometer to wear from the time they woke up to the time they went to bed. At the end of the day,

[00:08:42] before recording their steps, they'd fill out a self-assessment for the entire day recording

[00:08:47] their feelings about self-esteem, happiness, overall mood, depression, energy, and tension.

[00:08:55] Over the 20-day period of the study, the students averaged around 9000 steps per day.

[00:09:00] When students got more steps in, they tended to record higher than normal ratings for their health,

[00:09:06] mood, energy, happiness, and self-esteem. They even felt their diet was more nutritious when

[00:09:12] they walked more. 4. Moving more equals better mobility and function overall

[00:09:19] At the end of the day, our bodies have evolved for consistent movement. A quick way to prove

[00:09:24] this easily to yourself is to spend an entire 24 hours in bed. Not only will you begin to get

[00:09:31] achy and restless, but you'll notice that you become stiff after too much time in one position.

[00:09:36] The same can be said for long periods of sitting or standing and any other form of being sedentary.

[00:09:43] Our bodies were not designed by nature to sit still for very long. The more you move your

[00:09:47] body through various planes of motion, the better you maintain the full range of motion

[00:09:52] and mobility to move freely. When you restrict movement, you will eventually limit your mobility

[00:09:58] and overall function. 5. Hear that on tomorrow's episode

[00:10:08] You just listened to part 1 of the post titled, Walking for Weight Loss? How to Lose Weight with

[00:10:13] Walking? Seriously, by JC Dean of jcdfitness.com and I'll be right back with my commentary.

[00:10:21] When you're hiring, it feels amazing to finally close out a job search. But what if you could get

[00:10:26] rid of the search and just match? You can with Indeed. Indeed is your matching and hiring platform

[00:10:33] with over 350 million global monthly visitors and a matching engine that helps you find quality

[00:10:40] candidates fast. Ditch the busy work. Use Indeed for scheduling, screening, and messaging. 93%

[00:10:47] of employers agree Indeed delivers the highest quality matches compared to other job sites.

[00:10:52] One of the things I love about Indeed is that it filters out incompatible applicants. So when

[00:10:57] you're hiring, the process is much faster and you only have to consider applicants that are already

[00:11:03] likely to be a great fit. And listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit to get

[00:11:10] your job's more visibility at indeed.com health. Just go to indeed.com slash health right now and

[00:11:19] support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Indeed.com slash health. Terms

[00:11:26] and conditions apply. Need to hire? You need Indeed. Dr. Neil here for my commentary. I want

[00:11:34] to go back to something today's author JC said. JC said that walking is the main type of cardio he

[00:11:40] recommends to his personal coaching clients. And in fact, research supports this idea. Multiple

[00:11:46] studies have found that when we're just starting a workout program, the best thing to do is start

[00:11:52] with low-intensity exercises and to do these exercises almost every day. So let's translate

[00:11:59] this. This means that researchers have found that walking, even for 5 minutes at a time most days,

[00:12:06] is one of the best ways to start getting in shape. Why? Well, for the same reasons JC mentioned

[00:12:12] in today's article. Walking burns calories and the intensity is low enough that we won't feel

[00:12:18] super tired the next day, which means we'll keep doing it. So it helps us burn calories consistently,

[00:12:25] which is what's needed for weight loss. Now, let me stop right there because we're going to finish up

[00:12:30] the rest of this post tomorrow. So that'll do it for today. Thank you so much for listening. And

[00:12:36] again, I'll be back to finish up the rest of this post tomorrow. So I'll see you there where your

[00:12:41] optimal life awaits!