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Actually in all fairness I don't believe that any exercise is the secret to shedding fat.
I believe weight loss happens through expending more calories than we consume and so you can do that with any activity of your choice.
However I believe walking has some major advantages making it a clear winner.
First off, there are the obvious reasons.
Waking is rather easy and as I always say you want to make things as easy as possible when you are tackling a difficult task such as weight loss.
You can walk anywhere, at any time and for little to no cost.
You don't need any special training, no special equipment, no special environments (Like a court or a course) and you don't need to learn much to get started.
Walking can be as easy as a stroll through the neighborhood or as challenging as hiking up a mountain trail so no matter how hard core you are there is a walking style for you.
Because it's so easy on the body you don't typically need a lot of time to recover from a "workout.
" So where walking lacks for intensity it can more than make up for it through volume because it's something you can do multiple times a day rather than a couple of times a week.
Because it's so easy to do, you can do it at the drop of a hat so if you find yourself with 20 minutes to kill between meetings you can go for a walk.
In this way, it's much easier to fit more activity into your entire day (every day) rather than just one single one hour trip to the gym every couple of days.
I also find it's much easier to motivate myself to go for a walk.
You just step out your front door and keep going.
After all, what seems much easier, getting up early and driving to a gym with bright lights, loud trainers and heavy weights or just waking up and stepping out your front door? Walking is also the perfect time for me to clear my head.
It forces me to shut out the rest of the world for a while and let my inner dialogue finally get a word in.
Other times I just prefer to load up my I-pod and catch up on my pod-casts so I learn a little something along the way.
It's much more refreshing and often times more entertaining than watching old reruns on TV.
Finally walking can be a bit of a social activity.
You can do it with anyone, even your dog and everyone can get some quality time together.
So while I'm also in favor of a full blown weight training circuit that can require even ounce of strength you have, I believe walking has long been an under utilized method for weight loss.
It just might be one of the world's more perfect weight loss exercises.
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