Is walking every day enough?
PatriciaJane69
Posts: 13 Member
Hi everyone, the only exercise i do (apart from housework) is walking everyday between 1 and 2 hours,would this be enough exercise to help get my shape back,i have put weight on in the stomach area after having operation for ovarian cancer, my calories for the day are always low,feeling hopeful
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Replies
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enough for what?6
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Sorry the rest of my message disappeared lol0
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Walking daily is good -- just watch for any pains that could signal doing too much, or a change in footwear.
Exercise isn't necessary for fat loss, only for fitness & health. Strength training helps, so perhaps take a class or do the program New Rules of Lifting for Life.
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Walking is great. Keeping calories low is probably the best thing you can do. From personal experience, I walk my dog a lot. I mean a lot, and it stopped working for me because my calories were not low enough. I think you have a good plan!5
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In this day of extreme sports where people leap from helicopters onto snowboards and carve their way down the Grand Tetons, everyone and their cousin runs a marathon in every state and two on Sunday for good measure...
Somehow a person who goes for a walk or takes a hike feels the need to put the word 'just' in front of their accomplishment as in 'I just walked down the road for an hour and I wasn't even walking fast.' But let me tell you, you got dressed and walked for an hour at some speed above completely still. It's enough as you recover from delicate health conditions. Bravo! Good choice.75 -
For cardio, walking is great! It's my preferred exercise and I've seen my speed increase from roughly 2.8 to roughly 3.5mph in a year and a half. At my weight, I just walked 115 minutes and burned 498 calories (according to MFP's calculations).
Working in some strength training is also a good idea. It doesn't need to be a lot. I started with resistance tubes and bands and switched to light dumbbells. After a year, I'm lifting anywhere from a pair of 1lbs (starting a new exercise and concentrating on getting the form right first) to a pair of 20s. Are there people on these boards who are lifting heavy? You bet and more power to them! But I'm working out in my basement with no spotter, and my main goal right now is just to hang onto more of the muscle I've got while I lose. I'm not comparing myself to anybody but the (fatter and weaker) self I used to be and I'm seeing good results.23 -
OP, weight loss is due to a calorie deficit. walking burns some calories which increases the deficit and helps increase the calorie allotment. make sure you don't do too much too fast. your body will let you know. good shoes can help minimize this too
welcome and good luck
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PatriciaJane69 wrote: »Hi everyone, the only exercise i do (apart from housework) is walking everyday between 1 and 2 hours,would this be enough exercise to help get my shape back,i have put weight on in the stomach area after having operation for ovarian cancer, my calories for the day are always low,feeling hopeful
It increases your activity level which can get you more calories.
I mostly walk for exercise too.6 -
It sounds awesome! One of my fitness goals is to be able to walk like that. I love walking outside.
I’ll only encourage you to check if you need a rest day, stretch, and check in with your body. Especially after surgery, be gentle on yourself.
Walking is low impact but not zero impact, and injury can happen (to me. It happened to me. Lol).5 -
I mostly walk for exercise. I have gotten to where I am able to average ~4.25 mph on walks of up to 6 miles. It can become serious exercise.12
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Walking is super. When I was 256lbs, walking is about all I could do. I aimed for about an hour a day in addition to logging/tracking my calories on MFP.4
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For cardio, walking is... okay. At the risk of offending some people here, it's not *great* in comparison to other cardio activities. It does have certain advantages, such as being unintimidating and low-impact. It's also a good form of active recovery during rest days. However, it won't do much to build up either muscular or cardiovascular endurance unless one is in really bad shape to begin with. Also, it does almost nothing for strength.
As a fat-burning activity, it's also relatively inefficient. This is especially true for walking as most people think of it -- an easy, relaxed pace on level ground. You can compensate for this by walking briskly, hiking up harsh terrain, or carrying heavy objects around.
I would never discourage someone from walking. It certainly has its place, especially for people who are just starting out or who have disabilities that prevent them from doing more vigorous activities. Just remember that when physicians and exercise authorities say that walking is "great" exercise, it's because they know that most people would balk at the idea of doing much more than that.
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*Shrug* My RHR is currently 56 bpm and it got there mostly through walking. And I've noticed significant improvements to speed and endurance. Now, strength training has probably helped there, too, but I'm not squatting more than 40lbs right now, so we're not talking about anything intense on either the cardio or strength front.
I never set out trying to walk briskly, but over time... it's happened. My normal walking speed is now 3.5 mph and the only thing I did to get there was walk every day.9 -
This is an example of the brisk walking that I was talking about. If you do walk for exercise, anything less than a brisk pace is mostly a waste of time... though of course, it's still better than driving somewhere or sitting on the couch.CarvedTones wrote: »I mostly walk for exercise. I have gotten to where I am able to average ~4.25 mph on walks of up to 6 miles. It can become serious exercise.
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At my weight, walking for an hour at
2.0 mph burns 171 calories
2.5 mph burns 205 calories
3.0 mph burns 226 calories
3.5 mph burns 260 calories
So roughly a difference of 90 calories between 2.0 and 3.5. It's significant, but I still wouldn't call 170-odd calories burned a waste of time. I mean, that's a 62-gram challah roll, or an ounce of roasted chickpeas plus a veggie dog, or more than two pieces of string cheese...11 -
Anything that gets you up and moving is good in my opinion. Getting more walking sprinkled Into my day made a significant difference in my total calories burned, plus it’s just good for you. Of course if we’re just comparing an hour of walking vs an hour of another type of exercise, walking is probably one of the lowest in terms of calories burnt.5
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I'm going to play a bit of devils advocate here. Seeing too much "Walking is great!"
Is it enough? That depends on your definition of 'enough.' It's certainly better than nothing but...
Walking + calorie deficit will result in general, and likely slow, weight loss, but our bodies are smart. It figures out what you're doing and adjusts your metabolism to compensate. Evolution is constrained by the laws of thermodynamics so all living things try to use as little energy as possible. I.E. You start dieting - Body will adjust your metabolism lower to compensate for the reduced calories. I.E. While you may see weight loss initially then taper off as your body adjusts. Unfortunately the only way to combat this is to increase your exercise and adjust your diet.
Depending on how your knees are I would highly recommend the Couch to 5k program. Anybody can do this. If you can walk or shuffle you can do C25k. I would also say look into mixing in some High Intensity Interval Training which is basically you walk for two minutes, then jog for 2 minutes and get your heart rate up to about 80% of your maximum (I'm 46 so that means I have to get my HR up to 145 and above), then walk for 2 minutes to lower your heart rate back down. Google it, you'll find all kind of info on HIIT and HIIT vs Steady State Carido etc..
While steady state jogging is good HIIT (IMO) is better for weight loss and helps combat your bodies ability to adjust to what you're doing.
Mixing in some light weight training would not go amiss either. Muscle burns more energy than fat does (I mean Fats main job is to -store- energy after all) so increasing muscle mass means you will burn more calories by default to maintain that increased muscle.
I'd point you to this clip from Bojack horseman that illustrates exercise (and jogging specifically) pretty succinctly:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2_Mn-qRKjA
The other part is diet. Cut out all simple carbohydrates. No soft drinks, no table sugar (White raw or otherwise) no Juice, no white rice, no white bread etc.. I'm big into the Keto lifestyle so am a huge carb Nazi, but for most people Keto is hard to maintain in the long term, but the science is pretty much in that simple carbohydrates are no bueno.
To summarize you'll probably be disappointed or frustrated in the results of just walking + mild dieting. It's certainly better than nothing, but I say step it up!
Good luck!
CF39 -
PatriciaJane69 wrote: »Hi everyone, the only exercise i do (apart from housework) is walking everyday between 1 and 2 hours,would this be enough exercise to help get my shape back,i have put weight on in the stomach area after having operation for ovarian cancer, my calories for the day are always low,feeling hopeful
Congratulations!! That's a lot of walking. It will certainly help with weight loss especially as you're keeping your calorie intake low as well.
It probably won't do as much for toning specific muscles as you'd get from a structured program, but that's not always necessary. All the best to you on your fitness journey.6 -
I totally rate walking as an exercise form. It's cheap and easy to do. Difficult to make much money coaching people to walk, however These days people put so much effort into HIIT etc because they get the same energy expenditure in a shorter time, and I get that. But the energy taken to climb a hill is the same whether you walk or run, the difference is the power (energy/second). You need more power to run up the hill, sure, but it's energy that matters. that's why it's calories in, calories out, not watts in, watts out. 10
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Not generally enough to matter.Cake_Flanks wrote: »I'm going to play a bit of devils advocate here. Seeing too much "Walking is great!"
Is it enough? That depends on your definition of 'enough.' It's certainly better than nothing but...
Walking + calorie deficit will result in general, and likely slow, weight loss, but our bodies are smart. It figures out what you're doing and adjusts your metabolism to compensate. Evolution is constrained by the laws of thermodynamics so all living things try to use as little energy as possible. I.E. You start dieting - Body will adjust your metabolism lower to compensate for the reduced calories. I.E. While you may see weight loss initially then taper off as your body adjusts. Unfortunately the only way to combat this is to increase your exercise and adjust your diet.
Not really, since total calorie burn for a HIIT session is 1/4-1/2 that of a steady state sessionDepending on how your knees are I would highly recommend the Couch to 5k program. Anybody can do this. If you can walk or shuffle you can do C25k. I would also say look into mixing in some High Intensity Interval Training which is basically you walk for two minutes, then jog for 2 minutes and get your heart rate up to about 80% of your maximum (I'm 46 so that means I have to get my HR up to 145 and above), then walk for 2 minutes to lower your heart rate back down. Google it, you'll find all kind of info on HIIT and HIIT vs Steady State Carido etc..
While steady state jogging is good HIIT (IMO) is better for weight loss and helps combat your bodies ability to adjust to what you're doing.
Not enough to matter
Mixing in some light weight training would not go amiss either. Muscle burns more energy than fat does (I mean Fats main job is to -store- energy after all) so increasing muscle mass means you will burn more calories by default to maintain that increased muscle.
This is total nonsense.I'd point you to this clip from Bojack horseman that illustrates exercise (and jogging specifically) pretty succinctly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2_Mn-qRKjA
The other part is diet. Cut out all simple carbohydrates. No soft drinks, no table sugar (White raw or otherwise) no Juice, no white rice, no white bread etc.. I'm big into the Keto lifestyle so am a huge carb Nazi, but for most people Keto is hard to maintain in the long term, but the science is pretty much in that simple carbohydrates are no bueno.To summarize you'll probably be disappointed or frustrated in the results of just walking + mild dieting. It's certainly better than nothing, but I say step it up!
Good luck!
CF
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Cake_Flanks wrote: »but the science is pretty much in that simple carbohydrates are no bueno.
This is not true, but then I wouldn't expect a self-identified "carb Nazi" to provide a fair summary of the issue.19 -
I got 105 lbs gone that begs to differ. Lost by eating a balanced diet, including litres of diet pop, moderate amounts of sugar, plenty of white rice and bread (which, by the way are technically complex carbs), etc.
Fruits are simple carbs too, by the way.
What the heck is wrong with slow weight loss? Losing too rapidly isn't good for your body or your hunger levels. In fact, that could account for the 'metabolic slowdown' you mention. (Generally speaking, taking a diet break for a couple of weeks will take care of that, but TBH, I haven't experienced any kind of slowdown). Calories do need to be adjusted as the weight comes off, but that's because it requires more calories maintain a 250-lb body than it does a 150-lb body.
When I weighed 254lbs, I was losing over 1lb/week on 1720 calories. At 149, my maintenance is around 1650 and I'm on 1400 to lose 1/2lb/week. That's not a metabolic slowdown, that's a smaller me!
I haven't been disappointed or frustrated in my weight loss efforts. A little disappointed in the scale when TOM causes some water weight fluctuations, but that's about it...15 -
markgnicholson wrote: »I totally rate walking as an exercise form. It's cheap and easy to do. Difficult to make much money coaching people to walk, however These days people put so much effort into HIIT etc because they get the same energy expenditure in a shorter time, and I get that. But the energy taken to climb a hill is the same whether you walk or run, the difference is the power (energy/second). You need more power to run up the hill, sure, but it's energy that matters. that's why it's calories in, calories out, not watts in, watts out.
Not quite true, due to mechanical efficiency walking uses about 1/2-2/3 the energy of running.4 -
There's a difference between slow and inefficiently slow. One should strive to lose weight at a moderate rate. Walking, however, is a really inefficient way to lose weight in comparison to other forms of exercise.estherdragonbat wrote: »What the heck is wrong with slow weight loss? Losing too rapidly isn't good for your body or your hunger levels.
"But I lost 60 lbs by walking!" some would say. Good for you, but you could have probably done that more quickly with some full body workouts and some more vigorous forms or cardio --- all without losing weight too rapidly.
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There's a difference between slow and inefficiently slow. One should strive to lose weight at a moderate rate. Walking, however, is a really inefficient way to lose weight in comparison to other forms of exercise.estherdragonbat wrote: »What the heck is wrong with slow weight loss? Losing too rapidly isn't good for your body or your hunger levels.
"But I lost 60 lbs by walking!" some would say. Good for you, but you could have probably done that more quickly with some full body workouts and some more vigorous forms or cardio --- all without losing weight too rapidly.
Probably not. Since regardless of how active you are, there is a limit to how much fat can be cut per day. And that's GENERALLY in the 1-2% BW per day range for health and safety.
So Overall deficit is what matters, and walking is no more or less efficient than any other activity Or No activity.
In practical application, If you're actually training hard, and feeding your training appropriately, you should lose more slowly as the fat loss will be partially offset with muscle gain HTH.
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For fat loss, walking is definitely less efficient that running, for example.
Can you lose the same amount of fat per day? Sure, if you're willing to put in at least twice as much time. So in principle, while you CAN lose just as much fat by just walking, this isn't bloody likely to happen.
Not to mention that you won't develop as much strength or endurance, to cite just a couple of other factors.12 -
Walking is great. It's good cardio exercise and easily accessible. I mostly exercise by walking, often times walking laps inside my air conditioned hours for 30-60 minutes because it's unbearably hot outdoors right now. It is something I can do long term and fit into my regular schedule. So, that means I am more likely to adhere to it long term.
If you haven't incorporated strength training, you might consider doing so. You can start small with some hand weights. (Or if you don't have hand weights yet, use 2 cans of vegetables or 2 water bottles in lieu of weights at first. Or just do the exercises without weights in your hands). It doesn't have to be an hour long session either. Start with something small and add more exercises into your routine every few days or each week. I personally prefer an exercise ball, some cheap hand weights, and a simple workout DVD that I can work into my regular routine. But you can also google "strength training without a gym" to come up with ideas on what might work for you.2 -
Wow so much drama.
OP well done, walking - as long as you are doing it fast enough to increase your heart rate - is great.
Little anecdote, i started walking every lunchtime over a year ago. As I got better I found I wanted to go faster, and faster. In the end I started jogging and now I regularly run 5-8km and are training for a half marathon.
So yes walking is great and can potentially lead to more16 -
For fat loss, walking is definitely less efficient that running, for example.
Can you lose the same amount of fat per day? Sure, if you're willing to put in at least twice as much time. So in principle, while you CAN lose just as much fat by just walking, this isn't bloody likely to happen.
Not to mention that you won't develop as much strength or endurance, to cite just a couple of other factors.
not all people can run to start, not all people want to run.
and it's important to remember that exercise is not necessary to lose weight
i started walking and doing basic yoga.14 -
Walking is the only exercise i do. Sure, i could join a gym and do more structured and hectic workouts, but i know i would never go because i just wouldn't enjoy it..
I average 10-13k steps a day 7 days a week, and that's good enough for me! It gives me extra calories, and it's something my dog and I enjoy and really look forward to. My little Jack Russell goes everywhere with me, we go to the beach every single morning and we do a country trail walk every evening. Not just casual strolling either, I make sure my heart rate is up the whole time.18
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