Walking to lose weight

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Are there any walkers out there that are succeeding at losing weight? I use to run all of the time, but gaining 100 pounds has made that very hard to do anymore. I've been walking my dog, about two miles a day; and sometimes I double up my walks and walk on lunch too. Has anyone just used walking as their cardio and seen results?

Thanks,

Brittany
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Replies

  • HeyGoRun
    HeyGoRun Posts: 550 Member
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    exercise is exercise, power walk and use your arms try walking uphill, strap on some ankle weights!
  • Doone33
    Doone33 Posts: 171 Member
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    My neighbor, she walk almost everyday. With the exception of Sundays and rainy or extreme cold. She has lost about 40 or 50 lbs. I don't have her exact numbers.. But she would be a great success story!
  • Doone33
    Doone33 Posts: 171 Member
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    I wanted to add, that is the only exercise she gets, she has a desk job and does not go to gym. But she has mad her walking a priority.. without using any excuses as to why she didn't go. SHe has ben walking now for about 3 years!
  • helenrosemay
    helenrosemay Posts: 375 Member
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    I go walking everyday, building up from 30mins to an hour. If I can't get out walking, I found a great walking workout to do on Youtube, but nothing beats walking outdoors listening to some great music.
  • missbp
    missbp Posts: 601 Member
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    I lost about 50 lbs from watching what I eat and almost exclusively walking. I started with just taking my dog for a couple of brisk walks each day. Eventually I started going to the HS track and slowly built up my speed and distance. I worked up to doing intervals of walking and sprinting.

    I do lots of other things now, but one of my favorite workouts is still power walking my neighborhood, which happens to be very hilly.

    Keep moving.

    Good luck!
    MB
  • mwyle
    mwyle Posts: 24 Member
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    I've lost 40lbs through watching what I eat and walking.

    Am now getting into cycling and running
  • tiggsnanny
    tiggsnanny Posts: 366 Member
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    I'm hoping to lose weight by walking, I have health issues, so I can't run, but I walk my dog 4 or 5 miles a day
  • smsquash
    smsquash Posts: 38 Member
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    I'm only in my first month, and I'm almost 40 so I don't lose as quickly as I used to, but I've been walking and hiking 5-6 days a week, and I've lost 4 pounds so far. Also, even though the scale hasn't moved a ton, my pants have gone from being so tight I was embarrassed to be seen in them to actually being a little loose. I work full time, have a home and a 2000-square foot vegetable garden that I maintain, and a three-year-old daughter who is a mommy's girl, and a two-hour daily commute, so finding time to exercise is a big challenge. I go out every day on my lunch break and either walk on roads or hike on trails. Today I hiked down the mountain my office is on, across town and up the mountain on the other side (and then climbed the seven flights of steps to the top of the fire tower on top of the other mountain) and then came back, in about an hour-and-a-half. I think it's about 4 miles but incorporating the two mountains really ups the intensity. I do that twice a week and the other three work days are more laid back road walking. I try to get in at minimum 45 minutes a day, every weekday. Weekends are harder to find structured time to exercise, but I try to fit in either a 4-mile walk at home (and everything is hilly in Vermont so at least there is a lot of elevation gain and loss) or a shorter mountain hike somewhere local (can't be too long because my daughter can only hike so far at 3, and many times I end up carrying her for part of the way). In any case I've lost a lot of weight before by walking 3-5 miles a day, always incorporating a lot of hill climbing or mountains, so I know it can be done as long as you eat healthy and walk consistently 5-6 days a week.

    I think the really important thing is to start with what you can do, but do it regularly, push your body beyond what feels comfortable, and work up to wherever you want to be at. After a month of walking which has really just been cardio-conditioning, I now try to sometimes incorporate jogging on the downhill sections or I push really hard to go faster whenever the terrain gets steeper. Those kinds of little bursts do add up.

    Hope that helps, and best of luck to you.
  • SonyaCele
    SonyaCele Posts: 2,841 Member
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    Yeah i walked from 236 lbs until about 185 pounds, then i started running. but my weight loss came from the change in my diet, not from walking. change your diet and you will lost weight with or without walking.
  • shrinkingbrian
    shrinkingbrian Posts: 171 Member
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    I have used walking as one of my main forms of exercise to lose 200+ pounds. I lost the first 100 pounds by just walking and swimming. I have since added strength training but I still love walking. I did some running but I much prefer walking. I had problems with an ingrown toenail but I got the nail permanently removed. I still try to walk at least an hour a day and often more. I listen to music and audiobooks on my mp3 player while walking. Try to find nice walking paths in your town.
  • tanstaaflfarms
    tanstaaflfarms Posts: 3 Member
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    My primary, daily exercise is walking. About 18 months ago I started walking a mile or so a day up to today where I've been averaging 5+ miles per day for around a year. In the 18 months, I've lost about 60 pounds with little change in my diet, except for a conscious effort to make healthier choices.
  • WillowWindow
    WillowWindow Posts: 100 Member
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    Yes, walking is working for me along with cutting down on calories. I think walking is one of the best exercises because you are less likely to get injured and it's likely to help with hunger cravings and evening out your blood sugar. Really, you just need to do something regularly and stick to logging food and educating yourself about how to have a healthy lifestyle and you'll be successful.
  • gertudejekyl
    gertudejekyl Posts: 386 Member
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    Google the story of Jim Obley and also River Jack
  • mommy3457
    mommy3457 Posts: 361 Member
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    I love walking. I need to do it more. Watching my calories has mostly done it, but exercise helps too.
  • deb3129
    deb3129 Posts: 1,294 Member
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    Walking has been my primary source of exercise during the whole process. Recently a lot of long distance hikes and some biking has been thrown into the mix. But almost all of my weight was lost by changing my diet and walking. When I first started, i could barely walk a mile. Now I regularly take 8 to 10 mile hikes in the woods, and love every minute of it!
  • HollisGrant
    HollisGrant Posts: 2,022 Member
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    Are there any walkers out there that are succeeding at losing weight? I use to run all of the time, but gaining 100 pounds has made that very hard to do anymore. I've been walking my dog, about two miles a day; and sometimes I double up my walks and walk on lunch too. Has anyone just used walking as their cardio and seen results?

    Thanks,

    Brittany

    Me. Walking is my main exercise. I've lost 33 pounds since April 1, 2013 by walking to work and other errands instead of taking the car, walking my dog, and going on long weekend walks (hikes) in the nearby national park. In the past week I've added some arm workouts and other exercise for my upper body, but that's for toning, not weight loss. You can totally lose weight walking.
  • littlelaura
    littlelaura Posts: 1,028 Member
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    A former co worker managed to lose weight with the only thing she could do which was walk and of course watch her calories. She would eat any food she liked, pizza, ice cream, her success was due to simply having a cut off point, when she hit her calories for the day that was it, she stopped eating till the next day.
  • Needachange84
    Needachange84 Posts: 310 Member
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    I lost 18 lbs since June and the only thing I have been doing is walking, well eating better too! I found walking to be a good stress reliever! :) I was like you and used to run but all the extra weight just won't let me without being in to much pain. We well get there again some day :)
  • nena49659
    nena49659 Posts: 260 Member
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    My last trip to the doctor in November ended with him cautioning me to ONLY walk for my exercise. My blood pressure was too high so he was concerned. After about 6 weeks of only walking, I added bicycling every other day. Grandually, I've added more, different, forms of exercise. But, a good brisk walk is the way to start. If you must, start by walking around just one block. Then, add more distance.

    And, good luck.
  • jr235
    jr235 Posts: 201 Member
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    Walking is fantastic exercise. One summer I took the bus everywhere for transportation, and used to just walk around in the afternoons before work. It wasn't even particularly intense walking, but I was probably doing about 2 hours a day. By the end of the summer I had lost 15 lbs without noticing or trying. (I also worked on my feet and did quite a lot of walking at work.)

    Also, when I was a kid every morning on my way to school I would see a man walking. He started out quite large, and by the end of the school year he was a very slender person. It was very cool to see.
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