If you are hiking for the sole purpose of losing weight, then naturally you want to burn as many calories as possible. Here are some different ways you can hike and increase how many calories you burn overall.

Find the Hills and Challenging Areas

When you are hiking in order to lose weight, you want to pick the trails that are more difficult. This usually means looking at the challenging areas of the hike. Perhaps there is a hike where it isn’t just flat ground around a mountain, but there are steep inclines in several areas, hills to walk up and down, and perhaps even obstacles like large walks you need to walk over. This gets more muscles working and burns more calories than just a simple hike.

Carry a Heavier Pack

Another good way to burn more calories during your hike is to have more resistance. Continue reading →

Hiking for weight loss is an excellent adventure to begin, but before you do, make sure you are being safe. You need to ensure that you are focused on your personal safety above all else, or one hiking trip can turn into disaster. Here are some of the more important safety tips to keep in mind when you start going on hikes.

Consider Hiking with Others

The general recommendation for being safe while on a hike is to never hike alone. Of course, if you go to a national park where there are park rangers and other hikers around just about all the time, this might not be necessary.

However, more secluded trails might not have someone for hours or even days in some cases, so it isn’t safe to go alone. If you accidentally trip and sprain your ankle, it is going to be hard to walk back on your own. You might have a dead cell phone battery and no way to call for help. This is when it is good to have a friend with you. Continue reading →