Walk Your Way to Weight Loss & Wellbeing After Menopause
How walking impacts on post menopause symptoms:
To start with, walking is a great mood booster. Exercise releases endorphins – these are feel-good chemicals in our brain – and they can impact low mood, anxiety, and depression which are often secondary symptoms of menopause.
Walking makes you feel good, reduces stress, and improves the physical condition of your body to ensure that you are better able to cope with symptoms like joint pain.
Regular aerobic exercise can also boost energy levels and help you to sleep well.
There is no magical on-off switch for post menopause symptoms but walking is one of the strongest tools you have to improve your quality of life and reduce post menopause symptoms to background noise.
Walking as exercise is enough to help drive Weight Loss:
Menopause comes with some surprising and unwanted symptoms and one of the biggest is weight gain.
Our bodies have been through a lot, our hormonal balance shifts, and we become more likely
to put on weight – particularly around our middle. This can be much more difficult to shift than when we were younger.
To add insult to injury, we also lose muscle mass as we age and by the time we reach our transition from our 1-day menopause into post menopause, we are losing our muscle mass faster than a galloping horse which means our bodies naturally burn less calories and weight gain happens a lot faster.
That all sounds a bit doom and gloom, but there are changes you can make to fight back against menopause weight gain and walking is a big part of this story.
Walking is aerobic exercise, which means it burns calories.
Calories are essentially energy, and if you expend more than you take in, you will lose weight.
It’s also important to say that while walking is a great tool to accelerate weight loss, paired with a bad diet, it’s going to have a very limited impact.
Weight loss always starts in the kitchen and eating a clean, fulfilling, and nutritionally dense diet will give you the most bang for your steps.
Accessibility is also a big part of why walking is such a great weight loss and health-boosting tool for midlife and beyond. If you’ve been living a sedentary lifestyle for a long time, walking is often the best way to get back to movement slowly and safely. What’s more, it’s completely free and has the huge benefit of getting you outside in the fresh air which is brilliant for mental health. Be warned though, it can be a little bit addictive!
How far do I need to walk to make an impact?
You’ve probably heard of the 10,000 steps rule. But I need to let you in on a little secret – that was a number dreamt up by a Japanese step counter manufacturer in 1965 and it’s not based in science. It’s a pretty arbitrary goal that will work for some people and not for others – but if it helps to motivate you, go for it! The recommended step count for menopausal women is 12,500 steps a day minimum.
This is ambitious but achievable and you should start with whatever feels comfortable but
challenging for you. The important thing is to build up both intensity and distance gradually over time.
Does intensity or distance matter most when it comes to walking?
Walking intensity is just as important as the overall step count. And studies show – that alternating a period of moderate to brisk paced walking with burst of jogging, is best for targeting belly fat in middle-aged women.
You may not feel like adding jogging into the mix, but walking combined with sprints of power walking can have a similar impact.
If your focus is weight loss, then intensity wins out when it comes to your walking routine.
I’m so unfit. Can I really do this?
Yes, yes, and just for good measure, yes! Start small.
The aim is always to build healthy habits and stretch yourself gradually over time. So, begin with just a daily walk down the road and back if that’s where you are right now. This will help you to keep stretching and keep going until you’re hitting 10,000 or 12,000 steps without blinking. Remember that distance doesn’t always have to be the goal either. A shorter walk that combines normal walking with short but intense bursts of power walking can have more impact than miles and miles of gentle strolling.
If you’re still feeling unsure, there are lots of ways to get inspired – head into nature and walk somewhere beautiful – that’s good for the body and the soul! Or ask a friend to act as your walking buddy to keep you (literally and figuratively) on track. A fitness tracker, a walking app, can be a great way to see your goals and progress. And if you’re someone who gets bored easily, choose an audiobook or podcast to keep you company – you’ll be surprised how far you can go when you’re lost in a story.
Walking is one of the best things you can do for your body at any age, but during midlife, it’s a low impact, aerobic exercise and a safe and effective way to support weight loss, improve your confidence, protect your mental health, and hit menopause symptoms where it hurts.
Simply, it’s nature’s super drug and you need it in your Post Menopause life.
Di x
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