Have you ever gone on a long hike and felt exhausted and like you had burned a thousand calories? The reason is because hiking is an excellent way to get fitness! Take a look at these different ways hiking can help you to lose weight.
You Can Burn More Calories
This is definitely one of the top reasons people will hike for weight loss. In about an hour of hiking, the average man or woman burns between 450-500 calories. This is compared to around 300 or more with regular walking. You are using more muscles and going up and down hills, which is going to burn more calories in the same amount of time as walking around your neighborhood. However, the most accurate way to tell how many calories you are burning is to wear a fitness tracker.
It Helps You to Lose Inches
In addition to burning calories, hiking is also going to help you to lose those inches. Even if the pounds aren’t coming off on the scale, this doesn’t mean you aren’t losing weight! You might be gaining muscle through the workout, which means you are burning fat and not necessarily pounds. It is a good idea to take your measurements on the same day as weighing yourself so you can compare those numbers as well. You might also notice that if the scale doesn’t move, you still have clothes that are suddenly looser.
You Get More Energy for Other Activities
Hiking is a great form of energy as well. You would think it would make you more tired, but this type of exercise activity boosts your natural energy level. If you hike earlier in the day, you will feel energized for the rest of the day, which might include more fitness or just being more active in general. This too can help you to burn more calories and lose weight in the process.
It Has Ways to Boost the Calorie Burn
Don’t forget that just hiking alone burns a good amount of calories, but you can increase this exponentially with just a few methods. You can carry a heavier pack, choose trails with obstacles or steeper hills, or try to move around your arms more while hiking to get more muscles working and calories burning. Bringing an activity tracker really helps you to see how much you are burning so you know when you want to increase the intensity.
