Harley Pasternak’s best weight loss advice

Source: Best Health magazine, March/April 2015

You recommend taking 12,000 steps a day. Why is plain old walking so beneficial?

First of all, everyone can do it, anywhere, anytime. There are very few physical or health reasons why you can’t walk. In fact, most health issues are actually improved by walking.

Step for step, walking and running are very comparable in terms of calorie burn. It just takes you less time to run 1,000 steps than it does to walk them. That’s why I like to measure my physical activity with steps per day rather than minutes.

What advice do you give your celeb clients that regular women should hear, too?

There’s no advice that I would give a celebrity that I wouldn’t also give a regular woman. People are people. Move, move all day, eat well and sleep well.

Is it wise to eat before a workout? What’s a good pre-exercise snack and when should you have it?

Pre-exercise foods and post-exercise foods are more abut train gig people for performance, and for elite sports. They’re not really a concern with living a normal healthy lifestyle. Focus on eating three meals and two snacks a day and then decide where to put your workout.

Harley Pasternak’s most recent book, 5 Pounds: The Breakthrough 5-Day Plan to Jump-Start Rapid Weight Loss (And Never Gain It Back!), is now available.