Effective Walking for Losing or Maintaining Weight

— KSS Kanhaiya
Many people resort to walking with an objective of maintaining or losing weight. Many of them
do it in groups and keep talking while walking at arbitrary pace. In order to ensure effectiveness,
some points need to be kept in view.
• Pursue minimum twenty minutes of continuous aerobic activity at least 3 days per week.
Common aerobic physical activities are walking, running, jogging, swimming etc.
• Spread out the activity through the week rather than doing it on three consecutive days.
• The target heart rate during physical activity should be 60 to 80% of the maximum heart rate.
• Physical activity of less than 2 times a week at less than 60% of the maximum heart rate does
not assist in developing and maintaining fitness.
• The walking speed should be maintained so as to achieve the target heart rate.
• If physical activity is discontinued, the fitness benefits are lost. Within 2 -3 weeks the level of
fitness is reduced; within 3 to 8 months it is lost, and the person has to start afresh.

Measuring your heart rate (Without Wearing a heart rate monitor)

The easiest place to feel heart beat is the carotid artery (on the side of neck between the middle
of collarbone and jaw line). One may also use the radial artery on the under side of wrist. Place
index finger there and count the beats for 60 seconds. You may also count for 15 seconds and
calculate beats per minute by multiplying that count by 4. When counting beats, start with the
first beat as zero: ie. 0-1-2-3-4....

Calculation of Target Heart Rate (THR): It involves calculating Maximum Heart Rate and
then taking its 60 to 80% as THR.
Calculation of Maximum Heart Rate (MHR): There are three popular formulae for it.
1. Age Adjusted Basic Formula:
MHR=226 – Age in yrs. for Women and 220 – Age in yrs. for Men
Example: For a man aged 38 yrs. MHR will be 220 - 38 = 182 bpm
2. Londeree & Moeschberger formula:
MHR=206.3 – (0.711 × Age in yrs.) for Men, add 5-10 for Women
Example: For a man aged 38 yrs. MHR will be 206.3 - (0.711 × 38) = 179 bpm
3. Miller formula:
MHR=217 - (0.85 × Age in yrs.) for Men, add 3-7 for Women
Example: For a man aged 38 yrs. MHR will be 217 - (0.85 × 38) = 185 bpm
We can see that MHR from all these formulae is not the same for same individual. Although
these formulae give a fair rate and any of these can be used to calculate target heart rate, there is
another formula called Karvonen formula which is considered more accurate to calculate target
heart rate for effective walking . Details of this formula is given below:
1. Take your resting pulse three mornings in a row, just after waking up. Get average. Call
it Resting Heart Rate (RHR). Let us say, it is 62
2. Calculate Maximum Heart Rate (MHR) from basic formula (182 for a man aged 38)
3. Calculate Heart Rate Reserve (HRR) as MHR –RHR. For our example, it is 182 - 62
=120
4. Decide Exercise Regimen (ER) for your need. ER is also called “Training Zone”.
Aerobic Zone is 70 - 80% and Fitness Zone is 60 - 70%. In both these zones, 85% of
calories burned are fats! For our example, let us take 70%.
5. Calculate Required Rise in Heart Rate as Training Range (TR) = ER X HRR. For our
example, it is 0.7 X 120 =84
6. Calculate Target Heart Rate = TR + RHR . For our example, it is 84 + 62 = 146.
*************