Losing weight by walking

I use walking a lot, especially if I have the whole day where I can go for a hike and explore my area. It may not burn off the most calories but it's gentle. I also use it as the perfect excuse to walk everywhere! If it takes under 30 minutes to get somewhere, I walk. If something is miles and miles away, I get off early and walk the rest of the way (usually the point where it takes 30 minutes). That is my magic number. It builds up... I aim for around 2 hours walking a day. But like I said, I often make the whole day of it... usually on the weekends.

Is the 12000 steps a day just from normal daily activity or is it from a concious activity of "I am going to go walk 3 miles in addition to my normal daily activity"?

I got a FitBit a couple weeks ago, and started walking 10K steps every day. I eat less than 2,000 calories most days (not every day - I do sometimes go over, and I record everything in Excel, prior to joining MFP, so I know exactly how many calories I've been over/under every day). The weight is steadily coming off thanks to a consistent caloric deficit that averages about 500 calories per day, about 3500 per week.

On the three days per week that I go to the gym to lift weights, I go for one walk in the morning, 2 or 3 miles, to get most of my steps. The rest come at the gym, where I walk a lot between sets.

On off days, I usually go for two walks: one in the morning, and one in the evening. I've only *not* gotten my 10K steps on one day in the past few weeks.

Before I got the FitBit, all I was doing was the weightlifting, and since I have a desk job, I sit all day. And that was not enough calorie burn; I could not create a large enough deficit to burn weight.

I would venture to say that if you really are getting 12K steps per day, then you are cheating on calories somewhere, because your deficit isn't happening or you'd be losing. If you really were consistently below 2,000 every day and walking 4+ miles every day, you have a consistent deficit, and you'd notice a weight loss.

The only other real option is a thyroid condition, or some such thing, for which you'd want to speak to your doctor.

The math on this is pretty basic. I know from personal experience, we try and cheat the math, we don't include some food or beverage in our daily count, and we think we're below, but we're not. The body doesn't care if you try and fool a calculator or yourself, it knows better. If you cheat the calories, your body won't lose the weight. You just can't cheat the math.

In college I walked and sometimes biked to campus and back 5 times a week, roughly 1.5 miles each way plus campus travel, and lost about 50 pounds by the time I graduated two years later. No 'diets', portion control, or even tracking involved. As an art major I had quite a bit to carry back and forth some days too... Art History books should be listed under strength training!

I gained it back and then some with pregnancy 5 years later, but I'm back to walking and biking 6 days a week with Wii Fit U on Sundays because I like yoga. I focus on doing 60 minutes or more each day alternating bike and walk days. I'm losing again, so it is working.

You might add hills to your walks to help increase your calorie burn.

on my walks in the morning I log in around 16,000 give or take a few. I don't count the rest of the day. I get super sweaty and do a six mile route. sure it helps out a lot but the weight loss in the calorie deficit. My advice is eat less and move more. Try to be more active in your daily routine as well and be more patient.

Yes, walking will help, but if you're not losing then you're eating more than you think. Measure your food

Walking works, but I have some questions..

Are you weighing your food? If you are not in a deficit you won't lose whatever you do.
I swam for seven months without a loss. Your nutrition determines your weight. Exercise determines fitness. Exercise with proper nutrition will put you in a caloric deficit and then you will loose.

Go to the forum ...Getting started....guide to get you on your path to sexy pants.... Read this, learn from all the links, tweak your calories. You will lose.

Good luck. You are in the right place.

Walking burns calories. Having a calorie deficit is what causes weight loss. So yes, assuming you aren't overeating past your deficit, you will lose weight.

I can not weigh as I travel a lot so, have to eat outside mostly. But ya, weighing would give accurate counts.

Careful...

The abuse that I got in one discussion where I pointed out the realities of logging when on the road a lot was unpleasant to say the least.

Key point is, if you're not losing, you're not in deficit, so you need to find some way to increase your energy expenditure or reduce your energy intake.

My approach to having quite a lot of ambiguity around what I take in is to leave myself with an extra couple of hundred calories most days. So I'm generally eating in the 1800 range and steadily losing.