Exercise Walking 5km everyday for a month

What I learned walking 5 km everyday for a month just to fall off right after. Can exercise walking help to lose weight and tone up?

I am definitely not a health or exercise junkie and did this out of suddenly having enough morning free time working from home.

A quick disclaimer, I haven’t weighed myself in 4 years, I don’t know my measurements and didn’t track both through this exercise.

I was able to track progress with pictures and how my clothes fit at the end of the month.

Background

New Year 2021 comes around.

I noticed I was a lot heavier from scrolling through my memory camera roll on my phone.

I found side by side pictures of what I looked like in my outfits in earlier months of 2020 compared to January 2021 and I was like Hmm maybe I should lay off midnight snacks.

I’m about to let myself go. Let’s reel it back.

1. Consistency Not Intensity

This should be your motto and definitely was mine through the entire experience.

It is easy to get caught up in the many videos you see on YouTube and Instagram of hard core gym workouts with impossible positions and crazy weights.

You have to remember you want this to be as simple and sustainable as possible.

It’s not about how tired, sore or worn out you feel that makes up a good work out because quite frankly, you can’t keep that pace.

It is simply you showing up everyday without fail and finishing your set circuit.

Hence Consistency Not Intensity.

2. Picking a Walking Route

It is important that you pick a route that is doable everyday.

If you’re socially conscious when you are working out and that puts you off going to the gym, Exercise Walking is for you.

You would need a route that is safe to walk through and gives you enough visibility on incoming cars, pets and people. Safety is important.

It is an added bonus if your route incorporates a form of incline or added difficulty in walking.

It is important to note it doesn’t have to be a hiking trail.

I was walking a linear road with high pedestrian side kerbs that involved me consistently stepping on and off 1-2 feet platforms.

Essentially getting two workouts for the price of one as I was doing cardio as well as leg and glute exercises.

I would also recommend doing linear routes rather than roundabout as its easier to focus, stay alert and not get bored.

3. Your Diet contributes 9/10 to the results you get.

Your diet contributes 90 percent to the results you want to see.

Exercise is great and you should do it, however to see progress, you have to adjust your diet.

I am also not telling you to starve yourself because that doesn’t work especially if you have a slow metabolism.

You need fuel to burn fat and so if you’re not feeding your body required nutrients, it is highly likely that you could reach a weight loss plateau.

And that could be incredibly frustrating.

Calorie Deficit – A Hidden Gem for Weight Loss

Maintaining a calorie deficit should be the ultimate goal not trying to stick to certain foods by eating only leafy greens or cutting out carbs.

You have to remember the diet you are on should be sustainable and doable that it can be easily incorporated into your lifestyle.

A useful tool is to use a Calorie Calculator that takes into account your specified activity levels to figure out how much you should be eating in a day to lose weight.

You could also manually count calories and your work out to make sure you’re burning more than you’re eating.

I tend to stay away from counting calories and use portion control however if you would like to be more meticulous with your journey.

You could start a food journal to track what goes into your diet.

Food is a very tricky and touchy subject with weight loss. All in all don’t stress about it and adjust slowly.

Remember it’s better to be slow and consistent than to be overly drastic to then fall off.

4. Incorporate Home Workouts with Exercise Walking

Exercise walking is amazing as a low impact cardio workout.

home workouts alongside exercise walking

You could burn 150-400 calories exercise walking for one hour to an hour and 30 minutes depending on your speed and weight.

It is also a great way to lose overall body fat.

Although spot fat reduction has been debunked as a myth, adding home work outs with your exercise walking can target muscle definition in certain areas.

Exercise walking is also a very good way to warm up your body naturally before hard core at home workouts.

This reduces the soreness you would feel as your muscles have been stretched with dynamic motions prior to the home work out.

For a beginner like myself, I wanted regimen and daily work out plans I could easily follow.

So with walking everyday, I also tried and completed the Chloe Ting 2020 2 Week Shred Program.

This significantly built up my arm, core and ab strength as prior to this experience I had nearly zero core and upper body strength.

These workouts daily would take 30 minutes to an hour including breaks so I was working out for 2 hours on average daily.

I highly recommend checking out Chloe Ting as a beginner for free daily work out programs targeted for areas you would like to see results and couple those with your exercise walking.

Other fitness gurus I recommend are Natacha Oceane and Pamela Reif who also give varied Free YouTube Workout Programs; Full Body, Arms, Back, Legs, Glutes, Abs, Low and High Impact HIIT Workouts.

Their workouts are more intense so start slow and don’t stress about not finishing the circuits or the videos. Just work your way up.

Thoughts on Exercise Walking and Results

Exercise walking is a very effective exercise as it is easy to do and can easily be coupled with other work out programs.

I found myself more sharp and alert through the day and didn’t need to take power naps for energy boosts as I did before.

Overall I saw the hugest weight loss difference in my hips and thighs over the course of the month, which I expected.

Toned thighs are almost a given for me as I am naturally apple shaped and gain more weight in my chest and midsection.

Granted I lost a noticeable amount of weight in my midsection and got significant muscle definition however weight loss in that area is a continuous work in progress for me.

I plan on starting the process again, this time being very focused on my diet as that is the major deal breaker in getting my intended results and would share my feedback.