Welcome to the Get Fit Guys quick and dirty tips to slim down and shape up.

My name is Ben Greenfield and I'm the Get Fit guy.

Earlier this month, I attended a three-day conference on the hilly Berkeley campus in California.

Because my lodging was about a half mile from the conference location, I spent plenty of time walking downhills, upstairs, across grassy lawns, and through campus walkways. Although I didn't get a chance to do much formal exercise, I certainly felt the muscular and cardiovascular benefits of walking and had plenty of time to think about ways to make walking a

more fitness and fat loss enhancing event. So in this episode, you're going to learn how to burn

more fat with walking. Now, just this week, I found new research from a journal of diabetes

that compares interval walking to continuous walking.

So in this study, participants walk for 60 minutes, five days a week, and they varied the intensity

of their walking in a manner called interval walking, or some people kept their intensity

constant, called continuous walking. Even though both of the groups walking burnt the same number of calories during their walks, the group that did interval walking experienced much better blood sugar control, which has a direct impact on fat burning, overall energy, and long-term health. This simply means that if you go on a walk, you're going to get the best results if you choose some kind of undulating

terrain that forces you to slow down and speed up, like something that includes hills or stairs.

Or if the walking surface is flat, the best results will come if you walk as fast as possible for a little

while, then recover by walking slowly, then go fast and brisk again, and so on.

So besides that kind of interval walking, what are some other ways you can get fitter,

faster, and burn more fat with walking?

Well, I've got four quick and dirty tips for you, four bees for better walking.

Number one is to bear a load.

As soon as you introduce weights, walking becomes a form of resistance

training, which burns more calories and helps build bone density. When it comes to bearing a load,

the sky is the limit. You can wear a backpack full of books, sport a weighted vest, use arm weights or

ankle weights, carry a baby or have your kid piggyback on you. If you're up for a more

advanced trick, grab heavy rocks or logs from your walking path and just carry them as far as

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