adding walking as excersize

I don't know about 'light'. I can burn 350 calories or more in one hour on the treadmill at the gym (I even reached 425 two weeks ago). I'd rather walk outside though, but even then, I do 3 miles in 45 minutes and there are some hills... it's still pretty good exercise. And I do it every day. Clearly, it's helped me.

I walk roughly 3 miles a day as part of my usual daily routine and the vasty amjority of this is at a quick pace. I deliberately underestimate it and I log about 1/3 of this so it recognises that I am doing the excercise, but I don't feel that it's a comfort zone of net calories this way.

walking is how I have lost most of my weight. i walk like six miles or more a day. i make it my new thing now to walk to my local mcdonalds for their yummy parfait. it is 2.6 miles away. Plus i go for a second walk after dinner too. walking is great. :drinker:

I walk 5 miles per day at 4.0-4.5 mph. I log that as exercise. I also try to maximize the walking about I do during the day - I move quickly, I always take the stairs, I deliberately park at the back of the parking lot, etc. I don't log any of that.

Fitness walking (which is my 5 miles per day) is excellent low-impact cardiovascular exercise. Don't dis it.

I log walking - of course it is exercise.

I don't mean I log walking to the car etc - but if I walk to work or take the dog for a walk then I log it, anything 10 minutes or more of continuous walking.
It doesn't burn a huge amount of calories for the time taken, I think it is 34 calories for 10 minutes medium pace - of course something like running for 20 minutes would burn more than walking for 20 minutes - but it still counts.

One of the biggest promotions in Australia in terms of getting the population healthy was to encourage 'incidental exercise' like walking up the stairs instead of taking the lifts, parking further away in the parking lot and walking to the shop entrance etc - in other words for people who do no exercise, every little additional bit helps.

Like PP said, some of us are not trying to body build or become elite athletes.
but taking an 'all or nothing' approach to exercise (ie if Im not going to run a marathon or join a gym, its not worth doing anything) is counter productive to those people.

I've lost 30+ lbs mostly from walking and riding a stationary bike.

Walking is good if you walk for a prolonged period of time 20-30mins+ and at quite a moderate-fast pace! (Uses fat as fuel rather than carbohydrate)

(I do a sports degree haha)

Actually I think walking is good if you do it at all.

The Australian guidelines say people should aim for 30 minutes per day, most days - but they point out that it doesn't matter if this is one 30 minute block or 3x 10 minute blocks.

I have heard of some very obese unfit people who were told by nutritionist to first walk to letterbox twice a day - in other words anything is better than nothing, just start doing something, and it does not have to be a minimum time or pace to be beneficial.

Actually walking burns a surprising number of calories. Taking the time to walk an hour every day will make a HUGE difference over time.

^^^This^^^

Do you mean like....walking to and from your car, walking from the bedroom to the bathroom, walking through the grocery store? Or walking as in....I'm going to take a 30 minute walk? If it's the latter, I don't see why that's a problem. If it is the normal walking you do throughout the day, don't log it, it's already worked into your activity level.

While I agree about not logging general walking, I have to say that I can get a good workout in at the grocery store. Ducking and dodging around all the people who stand and stare at the food like they never seen it before can get me a fairly brisk walk.