While it is beneficial for a lot of reasons, to start walking, there are flaws in this system of thinking. Most of us aren’t incredibly active as it is, meaning we only have so much time we can comfortably allot to health and fitness, usually before a big burnout.
For most people that’s probably somewhere between 3-5 hours of true dedication to movement per week. So is walking a good way to maximize your health and fitness goals? Let’s take a look.
The reason this is so important to me is because of the bigger, long term picture. Lets start drawing:
You’re in a position in life where a doctor is telling you how to lose weight, which means it’s unlikely that there were instilled health habits to begin with. You’re also more likely to have a high fat-mass-ratio to lean-body-mass-ratio, which is problem number 1 as you age. (There’s almost nothing worse than carrying around a large amount of unnecessary fat tissue, other than being unable to burden that load due to lack of muscle mass & a declining bone density, which happens as you age sedentarily. Notice I didn’t say age, I said age sedentarily. There is a profound difference.)
Lets say you adhere to the doctors orders, unlike usual, haha. You start walking. But you don’t have a lifestyle of activity or health-consciousness, as that’s the path that led you inevitably to this very moment. So you only opt for the minimal amount of work needed. Roughly 3 hours per week is minimally required of intense-activity for our health as set by the governing entities of health. Although walking doesn’t fit that intense category, most don’t know this, and don’t fit the intensity-level category necessary.
As you age beyond 50, you start to see weight loss. The doctor was right! You’re losing weight from walking! Flash to 65, you’ve lost 50lbs, and even kept it off for several years, but now you’re 70 and you go back to the doctor as the weight loss has stalled. You’re already walking 3 hours per week (usually more by now) which is about all you can mentally and physically muster, and you’re not eating a lot either. So it’s time for Doc to talk about weight loss pills, problems of aging, or even this “just being the way it is.”
Flash forward to 75. You gained back the 50lbs you lost from walking and kept off for nearly 2 decades. The doctors tips & tricks, pills and other options failing you. Unbeknownst to you, (and maybe your doc) you’ve also lost a bunch of muscle mass on top of the staggering fall in bone density to boot. One day you fall, unable to catch yourself from lack of strength and muscle mass, and you land on your hip very hard. Due to the massive loss of bone density over a lifetime of aging-sedentarily, your hip fractures under the pressure and requiring surgery.
I’ll let you fill in the blanks of what happens after surgery, but just imagine how much bone density and muscle mass one might lose when they are on bed rest for even 4-6 weeks, at 75 years old.
THE PROBLEM:
You had 3 hours of time you would give to health per week, so Doc should have been optimizing those 3 hours toward YOUR goals.
Remember, The most prominent issue getting into our 50s and beyond is the decline of muscle mass & bone density from inactively-aging). So your goals of walking for weight loss, although working, are also setting you up to lose even more muscle mass, and even more bone density down the road as laid out prior.
The Doctor unfortunately has spent virtually 0% of their time studying or understanding nutrition, strength, lifting or anything of that nature. That’s not their wheel-house. So it makes a lot of sense that they wouldn’t know how to optimize your fitness system to get the outcomes you’re looking for.
THE SOLUTION:
If you were to only allot 3 hours per week to doing something surrounding those goals I’ve listed, I would urge you to focus on resistance training of sorts, like lifting weights. This 3 hours per week regimen would far outweigh the health benefits of 3 hours per week of walking. in your later years over that length of time. Because you will ultimately slow or even reverse the effects of sedentary-aging, or the decline in muscle mass & bone density.
Indeed walking is great for your health, but having muscle mass and high bone density is imperative for daily life.
B3FIT 