Didn't lose any weight from walking

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fearluna
fearluna Posts: 61 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I went to London for two weeks and I walked to whole time. from Jan 25, to jan 31 I walked a total of 53 miles about 7.60 miles per day. I had eaten about one small lunch and then i had some rather unhealthy dinners like fish and chips with a beer but that was it for the day. I figured going unhealthy woudlnt hurt since Id burn it off anyway but when I returned back home. I seemed to gained weight. anyone know why? (about 4 pounds)
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  • ValerieMartini2Olives
    ValerieMartini2Olives Posts: 3,041 Member
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    Walking has nothing to do with it. It's calories in. Calories out. You didn't walk enough to burn off the fish and chips.
  • tara_means_star
    tara_means_star Posts: 957 Member
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    It's unlikely you ate enough to gain 4 pounds in a week. If you don't usually walk that much, you are probably retaining water. In general though, walking doesn't really burn that many calories...I walk 2.5 miles a day and it only gives me 135 extra calories. It's possible you still overate and some of it is fat, but I highly doubt most of it is.
  • tara_means_star
    tara_means_star Posts: 957 Member
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    Oh, and eating out a lot likely means you ate a bunch of sodium....which also causes water retention
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
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    Calories
    Salt
    Travel

    So if your calories in exceeded your calories out you probably increased fat

    If your sodium and carb intake shot up probably water weight

    If the walking is unusual for you probably water weight

    If you flew water weight

    Give it a couple of weeks weigh again and you'll know whether it was water weight or some fat gain

    To be honest though for fat gain you'd have had to eat around 14000 calories over maintenance which I imagine was hard to do so I would almost bet water weight
  • RoxieDawn
    RoxieDawn Posts: 15,488 Member
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    I hate to rain on the vacation parade, those unhealthy dinners ... fish and chips and beer have a lot more calories than you think..

    The walking around did not do much but give you some extra "steps"... There is some calories your body gave you, but an actual steady state calorie burn for a period of expended energy and heart rate, NO... and not enough calories to do any off setting when you clearly over ate your maintenance calories each day.

  • DanyellMcGinnis
    DanyellMcGinnis Posts: 315 Member
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    Walking just doesn't do it for me. I got a Fitbit One as part of a wellness program with my health insurance company in 2014. I got 10,000 or more steps per day (about five miles per day) every single day for over two years and I actually gained 20 pounds (of fat, not muscle...). Granted, I was not eating right at all. But even using the calorie indicator on the Fitbit when I walked showed that it didn't burn a ton more calories for me than sitting around (realizing that is only a rough indicator, at best). Of course that will vary with pace, hills, and so forth.

    Also, fish and chips are fried and since joining MFP I have learned just how many calories are in butter, oil, etc. That could be adding more than you know. And it is hard to guess when eating out how much oil was used in the cooking process. (At home, if I fry something, I pour the oil left over in the pan back out into a measuring cup and subtract to see how much was absorbed by my food. But you can't do that at a restaurant...)

    The other thing to factor in is that travel causes people to retain water. I am not sure how far you traveled to get to London. If it involved air travel, some of those pounds could simply be from water. I would give it a little time.
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
    edited February 2016
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    gia07 wrote: »
    I hate to rain on the vacation parade, those unhealthy dinners ... fish and chips and beer have a lot more calories than you think..

    The walking around did not do much but give you some extra "steps"... There is some calories your body gave you, but an actual steady state calorie burn for a period of expended energy and heart rate, NO... and not enough calories to do any off setting when you clearly over ate your maintenance calories each day.

    I disagree with that actually

    7 miles walking would give me about 500 calories on top of my regular day

  • tara_means_star
    tara_means_star Posts: 957 Member
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    gia07 wrote: »
    I hate to rain on the vacation parade, those unhealthy dinners ... fish and chips and beer have a lot more calories than you think..

    The walking around did not do much but give you some extra "steps"... There is some calories your body gave you, but an actual steady state calorie burn for a period of expended energy and heart rate, NO... and not enough calories to do any off setting when you clearly over ate your maintenance calories each day.

    I dont know that she "clearly over ate maintenance." I don't think she'll know how much is fat gain (if any) until the water weight dissipates. Rabbit and I both gave reasons her body would be retaining water--I didn't think about travel, so I'm glad Rabbit did. I mean, she may have overate a bit but definitely not 4 pounds in one week.
  • singingflutelady
    singingflutelady Posts: 8,736 Member
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    Well it depends on the walking. Walking is a broad term. It can mean slowly strolling or race walking or somewhere in between.
  • NotParis
    NotParis Posts: 26 Member
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    I think it is more about heart rate. If you were walking but not really elevating your heart rate you wouldn't be burning that many extra calories. The key for me is to get my heart rate up, then I know I am burning more calories. Strolling around London all day was a lot of steps but not really considered a cardio workout.
  • tara_means_star
    tara_means_star Posts: 957 Member
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    NotParis wrote: »
    I think it is more about heart rate. If you were walking but not really elevating your heart rate you wouldn't be burning that many extra calories. The key for me is to get my heart rate up, then I know I am burning more calories. Strolling around London all day was a lot of steps but not really considered a cardio workout.

    right, but it still burns calories and chances are, she's not used to walking that much (by the sound of the post) so her body is likely retaining water from it.
  • singingflutelady
    singingflutelady Posts: 8,736 Member
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    Yes retaining water for sure but fish and chips and beer have a lot more calories than you would burn from walking
  • tara_means_star
    tara_means_star Posts: 957 Member
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    singingflutelady wrote: »
    Yes retaining water for sure but fish and chips and beer have a lot more calories than you would burn from walking

    They also have a ridiculous amount of salt, plus alcohol dehydrates you. She did not gain 4 pounds of fat. Some of it might be fat, but most of it will be water.
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
    edited February 2016
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    Actually your heart rate does not need to go up substantially to burn calories, the steps alone, even if ambling along count

    I think there may be a confusion between exercise for cardiovascular health and increasing activity level for calorie burn

    Might be best to think of it as increased activity

    If someone sedentary becomes highly active their TDEE goes up ..from 1.2x BMR to 1.6 to 1.8 X BMR (my BMR is around 1450 so at sedentary which is about 2 miles of steps I'd get 300 calories on top of my BMR but at moderately active I'd get another 5-600 calories)
  • singingflutelady
    singingflutelady Posts: 8,736 Member
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    I do agree with that. Just pointing out that she wasn't in a deficit probably as she assumed she was
  • Maxematics
    Maxematics Posts: 2,287 Member
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    DanyellMcGinnis wrote: »
    Walking just doesn't do it for me. I got a Fitbit One as part of a wellness program with my health insurance company in 2014. I got 10,000 or more steps per day (about five miles per day) every single day for over two years and I actually gained 20 pounds (of fat, not muscle...). Granted, I was not eating right at all.

    Then it's not the walking, it was your eating habits. There are no buts. Walking is great for most people who want to lose weight because it's an exercise almost anyone can do. The calorie burn you get from it depends on a multitude of factors, but walking a magical 10000 steps does not guarantee an immense amount of weight loss. Walking five miles can easily be canceled out with a snack.

    Some people assume that walking gives them leeway to eat a bunch more then they act shocked when they maintain or even gain weight. My 15000 steps daily only gives me a few hundred extra to play with depending on the duration and the intensity. I'm 5'3" and 113 pounds and the other day I earned around 900 extra calories for 31000 steps. However, I walked at a rate of 4 mph most of the time and I have a Charge HR so my heart rate was measured the whole time.
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
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    You're probably talking 1200-1600 for fish and chips and 180 for a pint of lager
  • Ninkyou
    Ninkyou Posts: 6,666 Member
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    rabbitjb wrote: »
    Calories
    Salt
    Travel

    Yuuuup.
  • pondee629
    pondee629 Posts: 2,469 Member
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    On a recent vacation I took, I gained 5 pounds in the week away and lost those 5 pounds in the first week home. Vacations are hard to "read". Just get back on track and continue with life. Did ya have fun?
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
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    tara_means_star wrote: »
    singingflutelady wrote: »
    Yes retaining water for sure but fish and chips and beer have a lot more calories than you would burn from walking

    They also have a ridiculous amount of salt, plus alcohol dehydrates you. She did not gain 4 pounds of fat. Some of it might be fat, but most of it will be water.

    This

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