Does Hiking Burn Fat?

Does Hiking Burn Fat? The good news is the answer is yes, if you love to hike as I and many of my friends do, you are in luck, as hiking is a great way to burn fat, tone up, lose weight and look great. In this post we’ll have a look at some of the common questions regarding Hiking and Fat Burning to see if we can clear up any grey areas.

Does Hiking Burn Fat Faster Than Urban Walking?

Hiking will almost certainly burn more fat than urban walking, or walking around town if you’d rather use that phrase. There are a few reasons for this.

Hiking is usually, but not always carried out in the great outdoors. Due to this, the terrain we will be hiking over will be uneven, containing uphills, downhills, rocks to negotiate, uneven tracks, rivers, mud and many other obstacles that will put greater demand for energy on our bodies than walking in town.

This greater demand for energy will have to be supplied quickly and it will have to come from somewhere. Firstly we will use up our fast release Carbs which are stored in our Liver and Muscles as easy to access Glycogen.

Once our Glycogen supply has been depleted, we will burn off the fatty acids in our blood streams floating around from recent meals, and lastly we will hit the sweet spot at around the 45 minute point where we will begin to release and use up some of our stored fat into our blood stream as fatty acids to be burned off next. This fat burning zone is where we would like to stay for as long as possible.

Does Hiking Burn Belly Fat?

Yes, hiking will burn belly fat, but not exclusively belly fat. Unfortunately we can’t spot target fat burning, so our bodies will release fat from whichever fat deposit it decides upon. Some of that body fat will be released from the deposits around our waist and some from other areas. The good news is, we will be burning off excess fat from somewhere when we hike. Read more...