Tropical Weight Loss
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Can I lose 10 pounds in a month by walking?

If you're counting on walking an hour per day at a slow pace to knock off 10 pounds, allow around six months to accomplish your goal. Walking longer or faster or dieting at the same time will hasten your weight loss.

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Walking seems like an easy way to get rid of a few pounds, but don't expect a casual jaunt around the block to yield quick and easy weight loss. Walking does burn calories, but it takes a rapid pace and/or a long walk to burn a significant amount of calories. If you're counting on walking an hour per day at a slow pace to knock off 10 pounds, allow around six months to accomplish your goal. Walking longer or faster or dieting at the same time will hasten your weight loss.

Calories Burned

To lose weight, you must supply your body with less energy in the form of calories than it needs, which creates a calorie deficit. Burning extra calories through walking is one way to accomplish this. To lose a single pound, you must create a calorie deficit of 3,500 calories, MayoClinic.com explains. If you plan to exercise every day, you need to burn 500 calories per day to lose 1 pound per week. The number of calories you burn walking depends on your body weight -- the heavier you are, the more calories you burn -- the distance you go and the amount of time you walk. In this instance, being short has its advantages -- short people also burn more calories than tall people, according to NBC News.com.

The Effects of Speed

Walking fast burns about the same number of calories as walking slowly, if you walk the same distance in each case. If you walk 1 mile at a pace of 2 miles per hour when you weigh 140 pounds, it will take you 30 minutes and burn around 79 calories. Up your pace to 4 miles per hour and you burn the same number of calories, according to the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center calculator, but it will only take you 15 minutes.

Going the Distance

If you increase your distance -- which generally means walking for a longer time -- you'll lose weight faster. You'll accomplish your 10-pound drop on the scale in half the time by walking for an hour rather than 30 minutes, because you'll complete more miles. If you walk for one hour at a 2-mile pace, you'll burn 159 calories, double what you would burn walking for 30 minutes at the same pace. But walking at a 4-mile-an-hour pace will take you twice as far and burn 318 calories, a significant difference, according to the UNM Health Sciences Center calculator. At that rate, you'll lose a pound every 1.5 weeks, and meet your 10-pound goal in around 15 weeks.

Eating to Increase Weight Loss

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What is the most important rule to lose weight?

Since food equals calories, in order to lose weight you must either eat fewer calories, exercise more to burn off calories with activity, or both. Food that is not used to fuel the body is stored as fat. A major component of losing weight is to make smarter food choices.

Since food equals calories, in order to lose weight you must either eat fewer calories, exercise more to burn off calories with activity, or both. Food that is not used to fuel the body is stored as fat. A major component of losing weight is to make smarter food choices. Here's how:

Limit non-nutritious foods, such as:

Sugar, honey, syrups and candy

Pastries, donuts, pies, cakes and cookies

Soft drinks, sweetened juices and alcoholic beverages

Cut down on high-fat foods by:

Choosing poultry, fish or lean red meat

Choosing low-fat cooking methods, such as baking, broiling, steaming, grilling and boiling

Using low-fat or non-fat dairy products

Using vinaigrette, herbs, lemon or fat-free salad dressings

Avoiding fatty meats, such as bacon, sausage, franks, ribs and luncheon meats

Avoiding high-fat snacks like nuts, chips and chocolate

Avoiding fried foods

Using less butter, margarine, oil and mayonnaise

Avoiding high-fat gravies, cream sauces and cream-based soups

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