Losing Weight by Walking?

Hey! I walk 4 days a week. Approx. 35/40 minutes each time. And yes I've lost weight! and inches. I've only been at this for close to 3 weeks.
If you wanna know what really works it's tracking your calories and stay within your goal. Eating healthier choices as well.
Welcome and best of luck to ya!

Walking is a great way to clear your mind and stay active. If it is the only exercise you plan on doing, though, you need to be very smart with your calories. It doesn't really burn a lot of calories but it is still good for you.

More hiking really yes this is how I started losing walking up big hills with my otherhalf I do alot in the gym now but I am going hiking with him on Friday in the Brecon becons from August until when I joined a gym in October well end of October I lost a stone and a half through hill walking and diet.. I lost another stone and a half after I joined the gym

Well...many years ago, I was not able to drive my car for awhile, and so I had to walk everywhere. At this time, I was about 150 and a size 6...after 3 months (the amount of time I couldnt drive for), I was down to 135 and a size 2. My eating habits were fine, but I must have been eating at maintenance, and the walking put me in deficit. I was absolutely devastated because I wasn't trying to lose weight!! I lost every bit of curve I had. (Im 5'10" by the way)

But I had to walk *everywhere* to check my mail everyday..that was a 10m away, I also bought groceries every day because I could only carry so much at once and I just *had* to have my wine with dinner every night, and that was about 20m away from home, except with a load of groceries, my arms looked pretty fierce from carrying that weight. Plus I had to walk kiddo to preschool every morning and back home every afternoon. So I was walking at least an hour and a half a day.

Now Im trying to do it on purpose lol And so far, walking along with tracking what I eat, I have lost 9lbs in 3 weeks. But the first 5 dont reeeallly count because that was in my first week and Im sure just water weight. Its been a steady 2lbs a week since then.

It doesn't really burn a lot of calories but it is still good for you.

Disagree with this
Look it up on www.shapesense.com (you can set your own stats and pace, get a gross cal burned and convert that to net)
You'll be surprised how much you can burn in an hour

I'm going back to train for long distance (3 50 milers AKA Kennedymarches are my goals for next year)
And wanna loose the +25 pounds I gained during a few months of PTSD related depression eating
It's the perfect mix for me
Exercise (both cardio and strength since my pack often weights atleast 10 pounds), work on the fat loss and clear my head

I do lots of walking, i can get up to 1000 extra calories a day just walking when i do 4 hours of it. I've got different routes i take 1 i know currently uses approximately 273 calories and takes an hour. Do that 4 times a day and you feel it.

It doesn't really burn a lot of calories but it is still good for you.

Disagree with this
Look it up on www.shapesense.com (you can set your own stats and pace, get a gross cal burned and convert that to net)
You'll be surprised how much you can burn in an hour

I'm going back to train for long distance (3 50 milers AKA Kennedymarches are my goals for next year)
And wanna loose the +25 pounds I gained during a few months of PTSD related depression eating
It's the perfect mix for me
Exercise (both cardio and strength since my pack often weights atleast 10 pounds), work on the fat loss and clear my head

In comparison to most other exercises, it doesn't burn a lot. Time:Calorie Burned ratio is on the low end. If someone has an hour to dedicate to it, though, I can see it being an effective weight loss method. Walking is great for lowering stress in my opinion.

Have fun training for your goal!.

Great thread! I just started walking today, mostly for cardio exercise as recommended by my doctor, but the extra calories I "earn" are kind of nice to have, too.

A calorie deficit is all that is needed for weight loss, the walking would be a good exercise for over all fitness but then again anything that gets you up and moving over doing nothing is a plus.... I had to enter a pool at 560 pounds to use water displacement to allow me to stand so that I could start exercising. I literally walked from one side of the therapy pool to the other and spent the next 17 months in the pool walking (among other exercises) and dropped over 170 lbs. From there I worked my way out of the pool and continued walking (again among other exercises). But weight loss start with calories in vs. calories out.... Best of Luck

What walking has done for me is to enable me to gently have fun from day one and to start increasing my strength and endurance, while enjoying the exercise and fresh air. I took the long-term way and decided to be happy and satisfied with personal gains instead of empirical gains that more fit people would consider a day at the beach. A very lazy day at the beach. Like, not even swimming, LOL.

So, I started with 30 minutes on a flat surface with my music at a comfortable time of day for me and enjoyed my thoughts and time to myself. Little by little I picked up the pace, not by design but just because it was getting easier and it just happened that I started walking a little faster. After about 3 weeks I realized there's another trail very close to my first one with some steeper hills. Now, the first 6 or 7 times on THAT trail had me huffing and puffing and struggling even going very slowly on the inclines, but it also has plenty of declines so I could get my breath back. And in between doing that hike, I'd do the really easy one next to it and around the playground for a few loops. After about two weeks or 6-7 walks, the inclines just had me a little winded, but it wasn't hard. So instead of doing the hard loop just once or twice per hour, I was doing it three times. Now, two months later, I usually do four.

Yesterday I took a walk on the country road up to my parents' house which is also a little hilly, but I took a plastic bag and put on some gloves and I picked up the trash on the side of the road. Every time I picked up trash I squatted instead of bending over. Today my legs burn in a good way, it's a nice feeling.

So, what walking has done for me over the past two months is to make me stronger. I'm not as weak, I don't need to take breaks and rest as often in day-to-day things, my muscles can do more. My next steps (ha, ha) will be to pick up the pace on my walks over the next month so I'm walking faster and maybe even sometimes doing a light jog for a few minutes every now and then when I feel like it and a particularly good song is on the IPod. And for Christmas, I'll be asking for a gym membership so I can take some Zumba and some Step classes and I know it will be a challenge to keep up, but it won't kill me and I will be able to do it.

From my perspective, starting out walking and focusing on having fun and enjoying the alone time to think and listen to music and then just increasing the intensity as you feel like it is a wonderful way to start feeling strong again.

Walking is a great exercise. I walk most days around an hour or so and i have lost 84 lbs in 8 months. Happy walking

Walking (either treadmill, or outside if I'm travelling) has made up roughly 95% of my exercise "routine" this year. I enjoy it actually. It gives me time for uninterrupted thought and I can go as easy or as hard as I like. 30 minutes is usually minimum. Mostly 45 minutes though. It's also easy on those parts of me that are suffering from age and years of hard living... :-)

my mom has health issues and cannot do anything strenuous. she used walking as her exercise and lost about 60 lbs. (along with cutting calories) i am not sure how long it took. walking is great!

I love walking! I power walk every single day either outside or I use walking dvd's (Leslie Sansone or Jessica Smith). When travelling I will use the hotel's treadmill.

I average between 2 - 6 miles daily depending on my other workouts (sometimes I would walk a mile or two as a warm up to another workout) and how I'm feeling. I usually average 3.5 - 5 miles daily.

When I walk outside at my fastest pace it's consistent, brisk pace and I go fast while pumping my arms. I enjoy going in intervals. I warm up by walking at a normal pace, then I would pick up the pace, speed up, slow down a little, lightly jog (sometimes) and repeat. I use Accupedo to keep track of my miles.

When I first started I just walked normally for short distances and was able to increase as I kept going on my stamina and endurance increased.

With a mild calorie deficit and portion control I've lost 80 lbs (in around 15 months) and have kept it off. Walking is effective, easy on my joints, helps to clear my head from a busy day and has help to give me nice, strong lower body.

Try not to go too hard too fast and listen to your body.

Long walks are good for you on so many levels. True if your not in a caloric deficit they wont help you lose weight. but ...

1. I get my best ideas walking
2. It is absolutely phenomenal at reducing stress. I have been fuming and sulking sometimes when I left the house. I am always ok when i get back.
3, It burns a surprising amount of calories.
4. It helps keep your nervous system in order. It's kind of like a spinal massage.
5. It is low intensity so overweight people can do it quite easily and it is highly unlikely to eat into lean tissue. As the calorie drain is slow.