Is walking a legitimate exercise?

travlingchick49

A brisk, 30 minute walk 6 days per week is good exercise.

perseverance14

It is a very low level exercise unless you speed walk walk very long distances and a brisk pace, or use Nordic walking poles or something like that, but it is an exercise,

Any exercise is better than sedentary, but I would not count on it to get you toned, but it will still help your heart and overall fitness if you do a lot of it.

CA_Underdog

LOL Actually house cleaning IS listed as exercise. Look up Cleaning in the database

Yup! House ceaning also gets my heat rate up better than walking.

It makes total sense--"doing the laundry" involves a weighted farmer's walk (to bring the clothes bin to the laundry room and then to the bedrooms), walking (to bring the clothes from the floor to the bin and from the bin to the closet), and lots of bending (to pick up things) and shoulder raises (to put away things).

cadaver0usb0nes

If you are just getting started than walking definitely is exercise. Anything besides sitting on your *kitten* all day is exercise technically. After you start to get into better shape you should incorporate more exercises in besides just walking.

Cherylllyn

Yes walking is a workout. It's easier on your joints then jogging/running.

DeterminedFee201426

personally walking never got me in shape fully just my legs ... i would'nt consider it a great workout but its a start

birkona

My friend is considered to be obese and so it's difficult for her to do intense workouts. She walks for 1 hour everyday after dinner and she lost 20 pounds the first month (with a clean diet as well.) So yes, walking is considered to be a great exercise. But it also helps to increase the speed and length that you walk for a maximum capacity.

snowflake954

LOL Actually house cleaning IS listed as exercise. Look up Cleaning in the database

Wow! Thanks, I was looking for it one time out of curiousity, since I do alot of housecleaning. Good to know.

DeterminedFee201426

It is a very low level exercise unless you speed walk walk very long distances and a brisk pace, or use Nordic walking poles or something like that, but it is an exercise,

Any exercise is better than sedentary, but I would not count on it to get you toned, but it will still help your heart and overall fitness if you do a lot of it.

this .. was my point here

Mandroll

I lost my first 100 pounds just walking 1 hour a day... with pretty much only small changes to my diet...

It really depends what you're trying to achieve... say losing weight? its great if you're walking fast enough to get your cardio going. But if you're already pretty much in shape, you're gonna have a LOT more walking to do than a 350 pound person to get the same "weight loss" results...pretty much just like everything else.

joannaphipps00

I walk about 2.5 miles per day as part of my exercise plan. Right now at an average pace of 2.5 mph I burn about 300 Calories per day simply walking. My distance is about 1.25 miles and I try to do that twice a day.

I don't care what others say and heck I even count the times that I walk around places like Costco and Walmart. I use a walker mainly for balance and you should see the look on the faces of some when I hit the local track, I average 2.5 to 3 MPH with water and rest breaks. The kids don't make comments they just stay out of my way.

Dewines

Covering 1 mile on the flat whether by walking, jogging or fast running burns approximately 100 calories. The actual amount burnt varies a little depending on circumstances, thus a sprinter would burn a little more than a slow walker, a very heavy person would burn a bit more than a very light person. However, 100 calories per mile is a useful rule of thumb. I actually find, when comparing with my heart rate monitor data, MFP tends to underestimate calorie burn for walking.

SlightFigureOfSpeech

I don't care what others say and heck I even count the times that I walk around places like Costco and Walmart.

This! I got a FitBit this year to track my steps, and try to get at least 10,000 steps in a day. If I know I have a lot of errands to run in the evening & won't have time for jogging or the gym, I make sure to walk around extra at work or when I'm at the store to reach my step goal. Not always great for my wallet because it means browsing even more cool stuff in the store but oh well

bluebird321

Great exercise, but especially if you are just starting out and don't want to "overdo" it. It does burn fat and is relatively very gentle on the body.

andylowry

I burned a thousand calories this morning with a walk. It did involve a mountain that was in the way, and took three and a half hours, but hey-- I count that as exercise.

FatOldBat

:laugh:

conqueringsquidlette

My heart absolutely gets high enough for walking to be aerobic. Heck, one of those "walk at home" videos of Leslie Sansone's gets me up to the 150s.

For somebody that's in awesome shape whose heart doesn't budge at all when they walk, maybe it wouldn't do so much for their CV health (without lots of hills or distance, anyway)..... but for where I am, it's the BEST I can do!

Mr_Knight

Heck, one of those "walk at home" videos of Leslie Sansone's gets me up to the 150s.

That's not being "aerobic', that's being in very poor physical condition.

As a gateway to more meaningful exercise and as a way to keep from sitting around all day, walking has value, but in general that value is highly over-estimated by MFPers. In terms of creating a deficit, you're only burning 35 calories per 100 pounds of bodyweight per mile.

Those doing 3+ hour hikes across terrain (which I love) are of course in a separate category again.

sculli123

Walking is one of the best exercises.