RC Cameron, Author

I have found a great way to lose weight. Audiobooks!

No, no, don’t sit on the couch and listen to one. You’ll gain a few pounds that way.

Through evolution, miniaturization, faster internet speeds and compression techniques, the audiobook became a simple application on a phone which you listen with earphones.

In the 1930s and 1940s, people read and recorded books used by blind people, audiocassettes became a new fad and small audio players such as the Sony Walkman emerged. But delivering music was its main purpose.

Now, back to our weight loss. Sure, you can walk 5 miles a day and lose those pounds. But are you enjoying the walk? If you’re walking by yourself, does it get dull after the first mile? That’s where the exercised combined with a good audiobook carried on your phone can make the difference. It serves as a motivator.

A typical fiction book can run into 10 hours of listening or 10 days of walking for one hour. Walking an hour a day allowed 11 women to lose an average of 17 pounds after 6 months or roughly 15 books. That means month after month, you see favorable results on the scale.

Now, where do you get these books? Here, I’m assuming you carry some kind of phone with you, Android or Apple. It doesn’t matter.

One way is to join Audible. It will cost you a few bucks every month, but you’ll get the latest and greatest. They claim the audiobook collection reaches 600,000 books by now.

But there are also FREE solutions. First, there is LibriVox created by a Montreal resident and read by volunteers. They cover only books in the public domain.

Then, there is the library card. Yes, chances are your local library provides access to thousands of audiobooks. Typically, the library loans the audiobook for a 14-day period. It’s plenty of time to get to the end.

On your phone, simply install a free application like HOOPLA or LIBBY and you’ll get access to the library application where you can search, reserve, download and return your new friends. 

And now, you’re not exercising. You’re going out to enjoy a fine book and lose weight. But don’t lose your audiobook: you’ll never hear the end of it!