Is walking enough?

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loulou2085
loulou2085 Posts: 23
in Fitness and Exercise
The only exercise I seem to get time for is walking.

I'm curious if many people have had brilliant success with the only exercise they have done is walking.

It's been one week that I have been doing deadly serious and I've lost 2.4 lbs so far which I am more than happy with but I was wondering if in the long term, walking is not the best way.

On a typical day, I will walk my dog from anywhere between 40-60 mins in the morning (it was cut short this morning-oops).

I car share with three other people I work with and they drop me off two miles from my house, instead of me driving home, I walk most days, unless it is pouring hard with rain.

In addition, most nights after I eat my dinner, I get my wii balance board (without switching my wii on) and do step ups for anywhere between 20-40 minutes. Only because otherwise I'm sitting on my backside watching TV and I don't mind doing the step ups whilst watching TV.

My aim is to walk as close to 10,000 steps a day but if I manage 8,000 I am usually happy. I want to walk a minimum of 3million steps this year, sounds massive but achieveable.

I'd be interested to hear any success stories from others who only walk - I do try to eat back my calories where possible :)

Replies

  • melsinct
    melsinct Posts: 3,512 Member
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    Absolutely. Walking is a great low impact workout. My mother in law lost 60 pounds by changing her diet and walking a few miles a day. Make sure the walk is brisk enough to get your heart rate up.
  • DanOhh
    DanOhh Posts: 1,806 Member
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    YES! I lost the majority of my weight w/only walking. As Nike says 'just do it.!'
  • auticus
    auticus Posts: 1,051 Member
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    Walking is good, especially in the beginning.

    It depends on what your goal is. If it's just weight loss, then walking can help you achieve that.
  • Brownski860
    Brownski860 Posts: 361 Member
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    absolutely.. i started off with mostly walking the first 4 months or so. Once i started to build endurance I started riding a bike when it was nice out and some aerobics. Go for it!
  • carriem73
    carriem73 Posts: 333 Member
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    walking is great, but you can plateau after a while- have you thought about getting some small hand weights and bringing those on your walks? do some arm curls, or swing your arms back and forth slightly with some resistance? go for the itty bitty wieghts at first and gradually move up to bigger ones-

    good luck-
  • bklyngirl71
    bklyngirl71 Posts: 381 Member
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    a friend of mine lost 60 lbs with just walking as her exercise
  • Fatbuster205
    Fatbuster205 Posts: 333 Member
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    Walking is the main thing I do, although I bought a Wii Fit after Christmas so will be adding that into the mix! Personally as long as you are walking at a pace that gets you breathing and hot, you are benefitting! Knee problems means I am limited in what exercise I can do but I have lost 25lbs so far just walking!
  • angelswank
    angelswank Posts: 55 Member
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    for the first 6 months or so all I did was walking for exercise and I lost a lot of weight doing just that. when it started getting colder I added exercise dvds to my workout. I still love to walk though.
  • Flixie00
    Flixie00 Posts: 1,195 Member
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    Yep, I started off just walking and then progressed to the gym. I still head off on a long walk on the days I cannot get to the gym - I enjoy it.

    It sounds like you are doing plenty so you should be seeing the benefits.
  • kevin3344
    kevin3344 Posts: 702 Member
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    Absolutely. Logging and staying under your calories is 99.99% of it.

    My sister in law lost 17 lbs in 3 months (about 5 lbs a month) and all she did was stay under her calories and walk...
  • primpixie
    primpixie Posts: 39
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    Hi,
    Walking is definately enough. Have you ever seen those power walkers? They're all like string beans. Although I wouldn't recommend the power walking, its tough on your hip and knee joints.

    Make sure you have a good pair of shoes or boots to walk in though, or you willl start to noitce joint pain - but it does depend on what kind of surface you are walking on. Perhaps take them to work with you in a rucksack - another tip, is to carry extra things, to make the walk harder for yourself, therefore using more energy up. Perhaps do the shopping on the way home, and carry that?

    Try and cover different terrains, rather than using the same old pavement route or road. Take different routes home, go via a friends house, if anyone lives nearby, and try to walk in the countryside as much as possible. Grit stone trails, over fields, anything that uses different muscles, and your core balance to keep you going.

    primpixie
  • sae1316
    sae1316 Posts: 70 Member
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    Leslie Sansone has some great walking dvds if you want to mix it up a bit :smile:

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