Walking a form of cardio?

Mr_Starr

Walking is a great form of exercise, especially in the beginning.

^ This.

I lost my first 20 lbs with walking. I started off at a slow pace and gradually increased distance and pace. You would be surprised how many calories walk an hour at even a 'leisurely' pace.

BrainyBurro

For anyone who thinks walking is not a form of exercise . . .

^ this.

every soldier who has ever marched 20 miles is in agreement.

every postal deliveryman who walks his route delivering mail is in agreement.

every cop who walked a beat is in agreement.

etc.

walking is actually one of the best exercises. people can walk longer and further than they can run and they can avoid many of the common injuries that runners face.

one can burn quite a lot of calories on long walks (and hikes).

anybody who makes their living on their feet all day can well attest to how many extra calories they burn.

there is also a 10,000 step movement of people (and doctors and researchers) who believe that walking 10K or more steps a day strongly correlates to longevity and quality of life late into life.

in many ways, walking is the perfect exercise for humans because we have been designed for it.

whitebalance

For anyone who thinks walking is not a form of exercise . . .

I feel like everything has been said now and there's no need to post on this thread.
But I'll add some content anyway. Walking is what I did to start and how I lost most of my extra weight. Walking more, and faster, prepared me for running. Walking up stairs and hills prepared me for body weight resistance training, which prepared me for heavy lifting. Walking is still my main form of "cardio," although I like a nice 5k or 5-6 mile slow run once in a while and will soon be doing something more intense that I always wanted to do. None of what I can do now was even thinkable to me before I started walking a lot. OP, lace up your shoes and hit the pavement, and enjoy yourself and your increasing fitness.

Mr_Knight

every soldier who has ever marched 20 miles is in agreement.

There is a world of difference between humping 80 pounds of gear 20 miles and "I walked for 40 minutes, feel the buuuuuuuurn...."

What the solider is doing is most definitely exercise,

BrainyBurro

every soldier who has ever marched 20 miles is in agreement.

There is a world of difference between humping 80 pounds of gear 20 miles and "I walked for 40 minutes, feel the buuuuuuuurn...."

What the solider is doing is most definitely exercise,

strawman much?

because you've just "debunked" an equivalency that nobody has made.

pat yourself on the back and go away now.

Mr_Knight

every soldier who has ever marched 20 miles is in agreement.

There is a world of difference between humping 80 pounds of gear 20 miles and "I walked for 40 minutes, feel the buuuuuuuurn...."

What the solider is doing is most definitely exercise,

strawman much?

It's your strawman, mate, you introduced the completely irrelevant "20 mile soldier" to MFP's Land of The Thirty Minute Thousand Calorie Walk.

BrainyBurro

every soldier who has ever marched 20 miles is in agreement.

There is a world of difference between humping 80 pounds of gear 20 miles and "I walked for 40 minutes, feel the buuuuuuuurn...."

What the solider is doing is most definitely exercise,

strawman much?

It's your strawman, mate, you introduced the "20 mile soldier" to MFP's Land of The Thirty Minute Walk.

i don't suffer fools well and right now, i am particularly not interested in suffering your brand of foolishness.

you're the one who imagined an equivalence in your head between a soldier on a 20-mile march and a somebody on MFP doing a 40 minute walk. i didn't say that, so don't try to put words in my mouth. my comment (above) SOLELY addressed whether or not walking was exercise.

moreover, if you think people on MFP only go for 40 minute walks, you are also mistaken. some days i walk as many as 17 miles solely for the cardio calorie burn. i may not be "humping" an 80lb rucksack when i do that, but i can promise you that at the end of those 17 miles, i am every bit as tired as one would be from any other cardio exercise.

Unknown

This content has been removed.

lithezebra

Good for you! Walking can definitely be a cardio workout, if you walk fast enough to raise your heart rate. For most people, walking won't burn a lot of calories, but if you're also eating at a deficit, burning an extra few hundred calories every day helps.

BinaryPulsar

If you stay in bed all day, your muscles will atrophy. That doesn't happen when you are active and moving and walking. I think it is silly when people on mfp say that sleeping is better than walking, or other comparisons like that. I lift weights and dance. I do all kinds of stuff. I also walk, and hike and carry things when walking because I don't like to drive, I'd rather use my legs as transportation, and carry bags. I feel it contributes to the maintenance of my fitness. It is one element. If I only walked the fitness level that I have now would eventually decline, but it would decline a lot more and a lot more rapidly if I decided to go on bed rest.

MyChocolateDiet

Lol. Walk your *kitten* off. I don't care.

If were going to start qualifying it, then let's go for it. Yes, walking 20 miles through tough terrain with 50 lbs on your back is exercise. That's not what MFP people are doing. Walking very fast on a steep incline is exercise, as long as you aren't holding on. I see a lot of walkers where I live and in the gym on the treadmill. They are not walking more than 3 MPH. They are not exercising. They are just going for a walk. I don't hate walking. I do it too sometimes. But, the way I see most people walking, it's not exercise. It's light activity.

For people that are very obese or severely out of shape, walking is a great start. With a good diet, they should be able to progress to something more strenuous, eventually.

okay i'll walk my *kitten* off. and i guess if I get thinner this way while counting cals I can say I lost weight WITHOUT working out and start a thread about it. only to be bashed by everyone saying if I was walking and burning cals that way I can't say I lost weight with diet only.

MFP can't win for loosing. (pun intended).

ETA: the mispelling of losing as per MFP standards.

lithezebra

MFP doesn't make it easy to log your walk, because you have to calculate your speed, and enter your time, instead of enteringthe distance and time that you walked. I work out my distance using MapMyHike.com.

MyChocolateDiet

MFP doesn't make it easy to log your walk, because you have to calculate your speed, and enter your time, instead of enteringthe distance and time that you walked. I work out my distance using MapMyHike.com.

i put in my time and estimate the speed as compared to workouts i've done on the treadmill that shows my speed. thanks for that site though, i will try that.

girlwithcurls2

I was just talking to someone about this. If you're 85, a walk might be a workout. It's all relative. For generally healthy people, walking is light activity, not working out.

Ha. You should try to keep up with me. I pass people who are slow runners.

sm1zzle

This week I've doing a lot of walking. I've walked for 50 minutes at least 4 times this week. I was wondering if walking is considered working out I guess. I noticed I was extremely sore in my legs, butt, and a little in my stomach after walking this week. I took that as a good sign. Along with my walking I've been drinking plenty of water and counting my calories.

Walking is awesome and I consider it to be the "gateway" drug of fitness. Walking leads to jogging which leads to running which leads to 5K's...etc.

lithezebra

MFP doesn't make it easy to log your walk, because you have to calculate your speed, and enter your time, instead of enteringthe distance and time that you walked. I work out my distance using MapMyHike.com.

i put in my time and estimate the speed as compared to workouts i've done on the treadmill that shows my speed. thanks for that site though, i will try that.

If you know how far you've walked, you can make a good estimate by entering a speed and time that is consistent with your distance. So, if you walked 3 miles, the burn is similar whether you did it in 45 minutes, at a 4mph pace, or in an hour.

DownsizingAaron

As others have said, you can make walking really pay. One way to tell that walking is a good workout is to check your heart rate and breathing. If you have your blood pumping and labored breathing, you are getting a decent workout.

Trechechus

yes

cafeaulait7

It's getting the blood flowing much better than just standing or certainly than sitting, and that has health benefits. The intensity will make it qualify as 'cardio' or not, I believe, but there are benefits to lots of exercise that don't reach that level. Do shift up the intensity to make it more cardio for you if you find it too easy, because that's easy to do with walking.

But anything that gets circulation going is better for everyone (not just 85-year-olds) than doing something that doesn't. Except for sleep, naturally That's not to say that weight-bearing exercise, flexibility work, etc aren't also important to health. I think they all are.

Whether 'it's a workout' or not is one of those internet questions I hate, lol. WTF is 'a workout', especially when the definition is said as if it represents everyone? Swimming and cycling or dancing aren't workouts to a lot of folks. So? They all still have benefits, no matter who is doing them and how easy they are for that person.

erinxo13

I started this journey just by walking. I love walking.

BrainyBurro

for a 200lb person,

a 5 mile walk at an average pace burns about 530 calories

a 5 mile run at an average pace burns about 790 calories

they are both workouts, each with their own advantages and disadvantages.

tmauck4472

You won't be burning a lot of calories, but any extra activity is a good thing. :drinker:

What? Please.... walking is ONE of the best exercises out there. The amount you burn will depend on how fast you walk and how much you weight.

Speed of walking has minimal effect. Correct on the weight, though. Bottom line: walking burns 50% of the net calories that running the same distance does.

When I was over 300 I burned a crap load of calories..

Doing *anything* at 300 pounds burns a crap load of calories.

Walking is a great start, but it doesn't do anybody any good to overstate its effects.

When my friend was going thru cardiac rehab, they told her to walk everyday as it was the best for burning belly fat. Now I don't have any "studies" to show that just what her docs told her. Honestly you just have to eat less to lose weight. Walking is awesome and you feel better doing it. Jan - April (2012) I was losing 10-15 lbs a month with NO exercise. May(2012) - June (2013) I was still losing 10-15 lbs a month with tons of exercising about 5 days a week including Zumba, walking, ellpitcal (things like that) and NO increase in my calories. I did not lose any more weight while exercising when not exercising. The big difference I noticed was my heart rate is lower and I feel better when I'm exercising than when I'm not.

Mother_Superior

OP not only is it a great way to exercise, but there's an app made by the same people who did Zombie's Run! that will track it, and work it into an interactive story while you do it! I haven't used it, but I've used ZR and ZR2, as well as the ZR 5k training, and all of those are amazing.

If you're interested: https://www.thewalkgame.com/

BinaryPulsar

OP not only is it a great way to exercise, but there's an app made by the same people who did Zombie's Run! that will track it, and work it into an interactive story while you do it! I haven't used it, but I've used ZR and ZR2, as well as the ZR 5k training, and all of those are amazing.

If you're interested: https://www.thewalkgame.com/

Thanks for sharing this! I am getting a smart phone for the first time on Monday (my husband already got his a few days ago). And I was curious about walking apps. I don't run steady state for long distances. I run for dance and play and when I'm in a hurry or for short bursts. But, I do walk long distances to get from place to place and I like to walk and hike.

Edit: I just tried to tell my husband about this and he said, "It's a zombie walk!?!". And I said, "No, it's the walking game". After we joked a lot about slow moving zombies, we decided it could be the borg walk. Where you just say, "Ok, we just need to keep walking, and make sure we don't draw attention to ourselves, so they won't try to assimilate us".

TonyCrux89

for a 200lb person,

a 5 mile walk at an average pace burns about 530 calories

a 5 mile run at an average pace burns about 790 calories

they are both workouts, each with their own advantages and disadvantages.

Agreed!

kcasey155

There's also MapMyWalk and Runtastic for tracking your walks and estimating calories burned.

BinaryPulsar

There's also MapMyWalk and Runtastic for tracking your walks and estimating calories burned.

Great!

..oh, yeah, someone else mentioned mapmyhike.

QuietBloom

Throw on some ankle weights and pick up the pace. If it's in your fitness level, yeah it is and as you build muscle your body will want to do more.

No, not a good idea. You don't get much more of a calorie burn, and it increases the impact on your feet.

Same thing walking with weights. A tiny increase in calorie burn, but you could definitely injure your shoulders, elbows or wrists.

cynfuly

I lost 50 pounds in 4 months just by walking my *kitten* off everyday. It's all about consistency.

eldamiano

You won't get abs from walking...