Guide

Lose weight by hiking

3.8.2020

Translation: machine translated

You want to lose weight, so you've started jogging. The problem: after a few weeks of intensive exercise, you start to feel pain in your knee, hip or Achilles tendon. The solution? Hiking!

Hiking has become my new passion. Maybe it's age, but I've taken up the number 1 national sport. During the summer holidays, I hiked in Valais and the Bernese Oberland. Despite the breakfast buffet in the morning, sausages with rösti at lunchtime and pizza in the evening, I didn't gain an ounce during those two weeks.

Beautiful views

No matter what your age or physical condition, hiking, combined with a healthy diet, is an excellent way to lose weight. What counts is adopting the right intensity and avoiding pizzas, etc. Except maybe during the holidays 😉.

According to the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), it's recommended that you do at least 30 minutes of moderately intense training a day or 150 minutes a week. While this can improve your cardiovascular health and help with health problems, you need to go beyond this to lose weight.
The ACSM recommends increasing to 200 to 300 minutes a week. One hour of walking four to five times a week is enough for long-term weight loss. Every extra minute you spend training increases your calorie expenditure and improves your physical condition. Of course, always in conjunction with a slight calorie deficit.

How to go about it

Not all walks or hikes are created equal. It's important to make sure you're walking at least at a moderately intense heart rate. The US CDC (Centre for Disease Control and Prevention) defines moderate-intensity exercise as activity between 50% and 70% of your maximum heart rate.

Don't have time for long rides? Then you need to switch to a more intense workout. This should be around 70-85% of your maximum heart rate. You can therefore halve the duration of your hike to achieve the same benefits. In other words, a two-hour moderate-intensity hike is equivalent to 60 minutes of high intensity.

One of the many mountain lakes above Zermatt between Blauherd and Sunnegga. The Fluhalp mountain restaurant in the background is tiny.

The most accurate way of finding out how active you are is to use a cardiofrequency meter, but you can also rely on your perception of effort. On a scale of 0 to 10, where 0 is sitting still and 10 is maximum effort, moderate intensity is around 5-6, and vigorous activity starts at 7.

Walking offers many of the advantages of running, but the risk of injury is lower. If the aim is exclusively to lose weight, the length of the run is a key factor. According to the American Council of Exercise, a 68kg runner burns around 340 calories over a 5km run if it takes them 30 minutes. This corresponds to an average of 11.3 calories per minute. In contrast, a 68 kg walker walking at a moderate speed of 5 kilometres an hour burns 224 calories in an hour. This corresponds to an average of 3.7 calories per minute. In this example, you would need to walk for about an hour and a half, or a good 7 kilometres, to burn as many calories as you would in a 5-kilometre run.

If you want to lose weight, it's important to note the number of daily steps, the distance, duration and intensity of the activity. And what about diet? 70% of your success depends on what you eat. The rest is a question of training. If you record your eating habits with one of the countless specialist applications, you'll get an accurate picture of the amount and type of food you eat. This way, you'll reduce excess calories and be in a healthy calorie deficit. That's how to lose weight sustainably.

Conclusion

Watch what you eat. A slight calorie deficit combined with regular exercise will enable you to lose weight sustainably. Personally, I discovered hiking this summer. To expend the same amount of energy as when I jog, I walk a lot longer. But hey, with views like this, it's a compromise I'm happy to accept.

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Patrick Bardelli

Senior Editor

Patrick.Bardelli@digitecgalaxus.ch

From radio journalist to product tester and storyteller, jogger to gravel bike novice and fitness enthusiast with barbells and dumbbells. I'm excited to see where the journey'll take me next.

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