Burn Fat Faster: 8-week walking plan promises quicker results

NOTE: This article indicates that unless walkers walk FASTER, they don't see weightt-loss results. So, the fitPod question is: "WHAT BPM GETS YOU ABOVE 4 MPH WEIGHT-LOSS THRESHOLD?

From Prevention

One of the most common complaints we hear from veteran walkers is "I'm not seeing any results." Prevention's fitness director, Michele Stanten, isn't surprised. "It's easy to slack off because walking is such a comfortable, familiar activity. If your goal is to slim down, you need to keep up a faster pace."

For Karen Liptrap, 40, it wasn't until she broke 4 MPH that her body started to respond. "My tush used to hang," says the mother of three from Oakville, Ontario, who started walking 4 years ago. "Now it's firm, and my legs are strong and toned."

To understand why Liptrap shaped up, just do the math. The faster you walk, the more calories you burn. For example, a 60-minute walk at 3 MPH burns 240 calories (based on a 150-lb person). Speed up to 4 MPH, and you can blast those calories in just 42 minutes. Keep it up for an hour, and you'll burn nearly 50% more calories--364 total. At that pace, walking 5 days a week, you could lose an extra 10 pounds a year.

And those are just the visible benefits. "Ramping up your speed trains the heart, lungs, and skeletal muscles to use oxygen more efficiently," explains Brian Duscha, an exercise physiologist at Duke University Medical Center. Researchers at the University of Michigan also found that women who walked at 4.2 MPH for 15 weeks increased their bone density, while those who walked 3.4 MPH saw their bone density decrease.

Results like these are just a few quick steps away with this 8-week speed training program, developed by Boston-based walking expert and biomechanist Mark Fenton. The Short & Fast walk (see box and chart below) teaches your nerves and muscles to react quicker so your legs move faster; the Long & Steady walk progressively builds endurance and trains your body to sustain a faster speed for a period of 30 minutes or more. Do each of these speed walks once a week and a moderate-paced walk two to four times a week. Supplement your walks with the Muscle Up Your Speed routine three times a week, and soon you'll be blazing a trail to health--and leaving everybody else in the dust.