To burn fat you need a weight loss exercise program and a healthy diet. People are often happy to eat better food, but exercise fills them with horror. Sweaty gyms, treadmills, weights and the company of fit young people are not for them. What can they do to get enough exercise each day in order to lose weight?

A weight loss exercise program can be many things, it does not have to be hard work. But it must be regular. A minimum of five days a week is what you need and more is even better. Start slowly and work up to a more demanding level. If you really want to get fit, and lose weight in the process, try power walking - also known as fast walking. This is walking at about 5 mph which just stops short of jogging. To be power walking and not jogging one foot must be in contact with the ground at all times. The arms also need to be moved more vigorously than in normal walking. That is all there is to it.

The advantage of fast walking is that it has less impact on the joints than jogging and is particularly suitable for older people, whose joints become vulnerable with age.

Like all exercise you should start slowly. Do not try an extended period of power walking on your first day. Before you consider it at all you should have done enough walking at a normal speed of about 2 mph to be comfortable for 30 minutes without fatigue. After that you can move up to power walking.

A good way to start is to do it in intervals. Begin by spending just 5 minutes fast walking, 5 minutes walking at normal speed, then another 5 minutes fast walking. Do this for a week then extend the time you take to half an hour - still keeping to the 5 minutes fast walking, 5 minutes normal walking regime. After another week increase to 45 minutes then to 60 minutes. You may find that after a while you will want to drop the periods of normal walking and power walk all the time, this is fine, but do not do too much too soon. Try to walk every day, if not at least 5 days a week. The longer periods are a big commitment, but 30 minutes can be 15 minutes morning and 15 minutes evening and similarly an hour can be two half hour walks each day. Just settle on what you can do and walk regularly - but make sure you are enjoying your exercise. If the commitment becomes a burden do less, but try not to give it up completely.

Power walking this way will tone your muscles and using your arms will help exercise the upper body. It will also burn calories. How many calories depends on a number of things, such as your weight, height and the terrain you are covering. But as a guide 10 minutes power walking and five minutes walking at 2 mph will burn fat amounting to about 105 calories. Your half hour of 15 minutes power walking and 15 minutes walking at 2 mph will burn fat amounting to about 180 calories. This may not seem much, but remember that it all helps, and with a healthy diet and daily power walking you will easily lose a pound a week. That is safe weight loss and far better for your health than fad diets or pills - and, best of all, you will not have to visit the gym.