7 Walking Mistakes that Prevent Weight Loss After 50 Walking mistakes may be keeping you from your best results. Doctors often recommend walking as a best exercise. However, the blanket “walk” advice leaves a lot of information out. You’ve got less room for error after 50, especially if you’re in menopause. If you’ve added a walking program – or plateaued using one –  or you're thinking about starting a walking program, avoiding these mistakes will help you keep moving in a more effective way. This episode is sponsored by CBD for Life. If this time of year finds you a little sore from workouts, CBD is a new tool in the toolbox, providing the anti-inflammatory properties without the THC or feelings of being high. I use mine most often on my upper back and neck, though also recently apply to my quads as I’ve started running again. I gifted some to my 93-year old mom for her lower back. I love not only that it works, it’s harvested thoughtfully, and that it’s a female founded company. I’ll link in show notes to it and to how you can get a discount code to try it. #1 Too Much Too Soon Fitness mistakes like this are the #1 reason for injury. I so understand the desire to get results yesterday’s yesterday, however it just won’t work out in the long term. You’ve got to have a foundation before you ramp up to more. “Smart starts” lead to flipping fantastic finishes. Have you ever tried to read the last page or last chapter of a book without reading the middle? It’s not satisfying. It doesn’t have the impact or desired outcome on you. Neither will your fitness program. Walking mistakes like this are the cause of overuse injuries like tendinitis most often in the IT Band, or bursitis of the hip, or plantar fasciitis. Flip: Walk frequently but short periods to start. Add 2 or 3 minutes a week to your walk per week. So week one you walk 20 minutes, week two you walk 23 minutes. It may seem slow but in a month you go from 20 minutes to 32 minutes of walking, and that’s significant. Yet you’ve allowed your joints, ligaments, and muscles to adapt. #2 No Intensity Changes Walking mistakes like this one will prevent fat loss during menopause. That covers a lot of years since it’s not uncommon for women to experience perimenopause symptoms for a decade. First of all it’s important to know, we should all be walking. It’s movement. But just walking has become necessary because we all sit so much. You need however to have some intense walking, some light walking, and some intermittent high and low intensity (interval) walking in your routine. You’ve got three energy systems. So a single intensity all the time is going to ignore two. It’s not good to go all out all the time. It’s also not good to go super comfortable all the time. The most common mistakes: Always intervals Always long walks Have purpose to your workouts. Every single one of them. Even if you’re at your ideal weight and you “look fine and don’t need to lose weight,” your best aging happens when all systems are go. Think down the road. Flip: Plan a long slow day, a short interval training day with at least 4 repeats of 30 seconds or a minute of fast or hill walking alternated with recovery, and a moderate intensity day in each week. #3 No Strength Training Walking is cardiovascular work that will have very little positive influence on your lean muscle mass. You lose muscle easier than you gain it after 50. To preserve it, and to gain any, you absolutely must strength train. You’ll be decreasing your percent body fat by increasing your lean, and that ultimately will support a higher metabolism that then helps fat loss. The real clarification you want to make is that fat loss, not weight loss, is your first and highest priority. You can lose weight, but if it’s muscle you are also losing metabolism and will gain fat. Don’t go walking down that road after 50! (pun intended!) Your posture and power in push off during walking will improve too so every step is more effective and efficien