Something we do every day is walk. We hear walking helps us lose weight, but what’s the best way to walk so you burn fat? Is there an optimum way to walk to get the most out of it and burn fat at a high rate? What about sugar? Is there such a thing as walking wrong and burning sugar?

What’s the BIG DEAL with walking?

Walking, or a slow jog, when it’s done the right way surpasses stair climbing machines, aerobics, or even running in its fat burning ability. It’s definitely the easiest way to get cardio in. Other added benefits are almost anyone can do it, it doesn’t matter how old you are or what physical condition or shape you’re in, and you don’t need to buy any expensive equipment. Anyone significantly overweight can even walk to get fit. You can walk any where; even in place.

What does walking faster do?

Well obviously, it makes you feel better. Here are the benefits for walking faster according to James Sundquist, Director of Medical & Sports Music Institute.

Increasing Your Walking Speed:

1. You reach a higher Target Heart Rate.
2. You shift your goal from losing weight over to increasing your fitness and level of  endurance.
3. You increase the flexibility of your muscles and joints.
4. It changes your Weight Loss results.
5. You’ll finish same distance in a less amount of time.
6. You’re muscles become tone
7. You slow down the Osteoporosis process and build stronger bones.
8. You increase the chances of injury due to impact.

What does walking slower do?

Wendy Bumgardner, an About.com writer also has a great article with information on walking slower to burn more fat. She says moderate walking is more effective for burning fat than intense walking. I learned about this trick years ago from Michael Thurman and Provida®. I’m fond of his Six Week Body Makeover and absolutely love his support community. You have to purchase his product to gain access to all his secrets but anyone can join the community.

So, how do you walk to burn fat?

There’s a trick to getting into an optimal fat burning zone and staying in it. You’ll need the correct heart rate and you’re going to need to breath from your abdomen. By mastering proper Breathing and controlling your Heart Rate you can take something as simple as walking and turn it into the ultimate cardio exercise and fat burning activity you can do. This is especially true if you have a significant amount of weight loss needed.

Breathe Your Way to a Thinner You!

We know fire needs oxygen to burn, we’re taught this from early on in childhood. When you drop and roll you’re suffocating the fire to put it out. Your body needs oxygen to burn fat much like fire needs it to burn a piece of wood. The more oxygen your body is getting the better it will burn off fat. Do you know the definition of aerobic? It means something that causes oxygen to be present. To optimize the fat burning process you’ll need to work a specific kind of muscle fiber called slow-twitch fiber and you’ll need to do this with oxygen present. If you think of when you try to get a fire burning, you blow on the fire to get it to catch and burn causing flames. You’re blowing oxygen into it to get it to burn faster and hotter. It works the same with fat! Get as much oxygen as you can to as many muscles as you can to stoke your body’s fire…ugh fat-burning.

How do you Stoke Your Fat Burning Fire?

1. Low and Rhythmic Workout – the intensity level needs to be low and you need to keep your routine at a steady rhythm. In other words, make your workout a low intensity level exercise and maintain a specific rhythm to your workout. Walking is perfect for this since you control your pace and how you’re doing your walking; flat terrain, hills, or mixed.
2. Abdominal Breathing – A very specific and on purpose way of breathing. By consciously breathing from the abdomen you can increase your energy level, reduce stress, influence better health, and optimize your fat burning.

• AMSA – abdominal breathing techniques to increase energy.
• Health Style – Walking for fitness is training smarter not harder.

Teach Yourself the Technique

The trick to using abdominal breathing during walking in your ideal heart rate zone is easy.

1. Breathe in through your nose for 4 steps.
2. Exhale through your mouth for 2 steps.

By following this breathing pattern from your abdomen you’ll send a maximum amount of oxygen to your muscles AND increase your body’s fat burning ability to its maximum. Just remember in through the nose for 4 steps and completely exhaling out through the mouth in the next 2 steps.

Are you a walker? What’s your technique? Use it for a fitness contest, GettinPhitJust4Me.

That’s right, what Stephen Barrett, M.D. on Quackwatch calls “hype”, Dr. Oz believes there could be something to it so he takes Resveratrol. Dr. Oz makes a point to say he does NOT endorse any product and if you ever see his face accompanying a product ad as endorsing it, it’s a lie.

Resveratrol has the same nutrients found in vibrant colored fruits like, grapes, apples, and muscadine grapes that help fight free radicals from the sun. Dr. Michael

Roizen, whose in his 60′s btw and looks 40ish, said you would need to drink 160 (or 180..forget which number he used) of the right kind of red wine A NIGHT to get the anti-aging benefits from the Resveratrol provides.

Luckily (or unluckily?) for those of us interested in testing the benefits of Resveratrol, there are supplements we can take. I’m not listing any links here for them. After Googling the term, I think it’s best if you do the research, talk to your doctor, and decide for yourself if a supplement of Resveratrol is right for you.

I can tell you that since Dr. Oz is taking this, I’ll be looking into it more and most likely trying it out. I trust the man and if he’s trying them…can’t be too bad of a think in MHO.

• Dr. Oz’s Anti Aging Guide
• Resveratrol

Get out those walking shoes folks! There’s a walking contest starting Feb 1st! Check out the details and REGISTER TODAY!

Hurry up!

Starts Feb. 1st!

You know you’ve been sitting on that couch too long! I have but…I’m on a mission! Get off your ass and let’s do this together!

BTW…have you checked out Phitter yet? It’s a great community.

Kirstie Alley has something new for us. A gift from Kirstie to everyone.

Phitter

“Giving Phitness a Phacelift”

No, I haven’t forgotten the English language or how to use it. Kirstie has just put a twist on it! Phitter is a new place focused on fitness for people who aren’t living a healthy lifestyle, aren’t phit or just out of shape, feel fat, look fat, know they are fat, don’t want to be fat, want to stop the downward spiral, and mingle with others like them to support each other. Kirstie wants to help them all get phit and phat!…which just happens to be the opposite of fat btw. I think that makes her phatabulous? Phitter is a support community where people can go to hangout and share tips with others in the same shoes as them. It’s a great place for encouragement and inspiration.

Kirstie’s new micro-blogging community is similar to the way Twitter works. You have 140 characters to tell everyone “What’s up?”, you can add phriends, you can send PMs (like DMs), and you can block people (Only some of the other phitters and I haven’t quite figured out how this feature works yet, but we’ll worked it out.)

The News Is Out!

PRESS RELEASE

What can Phitter do that Twitter can’t do?

Well, one thing that stands out for me is being able to follow a related conversation on one page. All you have to do is click on in context and it opens up a stream’s conversation for you. Makes it sooo much easier to follow along. (Yes, Kirstie told me to go eat dirt. LOL)

Another thing Phitter has that Twitter doesn’t, almost all, if not all of the phriends who follow you are in your list to send messages to. I like that…a lot. Makes more sense and is more user friendly. You don’t have to go to a phriend’s profile to send them a PM, but you can if you want. I like having both options.

Another phabulous feature….easy to use GROUPS! Easy to add. Easy to post from. Easy to join.

The last phabulous feature I’ll mention here, you can add tags to your profile. I don’t remember being able to do this in my Twitter profile…and I like having this as an option.

What features does Phitter not offer yet?

… but I’m betting it will (@wuuutman is awesome and has worked hard to make sure Phitters (that would be the users) have a phenomenal community that’s user friendly so that means easy to use.

• More flexibility with your background.
• Tickers! It would be great to have tickers to choose from and be able to add one of our favorite tickers.
• A personal Phitter Blog or one attached to a Group.

Other things I like about Phitter.

• The public stream versus my personal stream. Love it!
• Ability to view my replies so easily. Love it!
• Kirstie interacts with us Phitters. Love it!
• Support watches the stream and interacts with us Phitters. Love it!
• Support replies to messages…very helpful that wuuutman. Love it!

When the wheels in Kirstie’s head started spinning, it’s easy to tell she insisted her weight loss and fitness community would have to be so user friendly people would come to in droves and never want to leave it. It had to be something people would love and want to turn to to get the support they need to be successful. Kirstie knows half the battle of winning the weight loss game is positive reinforcement and having someone to kick you in the butt when you need it! Phitter does just that and more. Well done Kirstie! …and thank you!

I just did this Google search:
phitter -site:http://www.phitter.com

Results: 1 – 100 of about 11,600 for phitter -site:http://www.phitter.com. (0.61 seconds)

…and how young is this site? Days old people! Days old! I’d say Kirstie is on to something here.

What are Phitters saying about Phitter?

Queenieb @just4me LOVE, LOVE, LOVE IT! IT’S MY NEW ADDICTION!


hopefuloser @just4me I LOVE PHITTER! I get encouragement to NOT eat when I am really not even hungry!!! y’all are great!



maggietruelove @just4me I love it! And I think it will be helpful and motivating for all of us.



seattlegal @just4me i like it it’s nice to chat with others who may be going thru the same thing as me



use2bphit @just4me I like it. I love the idea of having a recipe exchange and support.

Have you checked Phitter out yet? What do you think? Are you already a Phitter? What do you like about it? What would you like to see added or changed? Leave a comment…get the conversation going about it!

Photo Props:
Alan Light (Flickr)
wuuutman (Phitter)