Lose weight by walking?

What you eat doesn't matter that much (in terms of weight loss) if you're still eating at a caloric surplus, yes......you could (at least theoretically) get fat eating nothing but broccoli, an awful lot of broccoli..

The weight loss will happen as a result of eating at a caloric deficit. You can lose weight without exercising but exercise (and walking is great) may help you acheive that caloric deficit and will also help improve your cardiovascular health......a win-win.

Walk (exercise) for health...benefits heart, lungs, muscles, bones, mental health. Control your calories for weight loss...take in less than you burn.

I think there are different levels of walking. I think you can get a decent workout by walking if you push yourself. No leisurely stroll. Put on your workout clothes and walk as far and as fast as you can. Get sweaty and a little out of breath. Like running, speed and endurance will vary and will improve based upon your fitness level. But make sure you exert yourself; only YOU will know when that happens.

I've lost 32 lbs since April and the vast majority of my exercising has been walking. I was suuuper sedentary at the start of this, all day desk job, videogames/reading being my main for-fun hobbies.

So I started off trying to hit over 5k steps on my fitbit every day, and 10k steps 3 days a week. Which most people probably wouldn't consider exercise but for me it was a lot of extra moving compared to what I did before. I'm now up to 10k steps 5-6 days a week, and on days I don't hit 10k I still try to commit to hitting 5k.

The bulk of weightloss like everyone saying though will be from a calorie deficit. The walking is more for general health purposes and a little extra daily calorie burn to make it easier to eat a little more and stay in my deficit.

Because I'm heavier, the fitbit adjustment sometimes gives me a LOT of calories for my longer walks, I usually eat back 60% of them and have been staying at my 2 lbs a week goal so I guess that's about right for me but others say fitbit actually underestimates for them and they can eat back 100% of them and others say they can only eat back a third of what fitbit says, so you'll have to kind of experiment and adjust it on the fly until you figure out how the fitbit adjustment matches up to you.

MaiLinna wrote: »

I'm wondering this as well. I have a Fitbit and I keep everything set to sedentary because I usually spend the day in my small apartment playing games or cleaning. But now I do a lot more grocery shopping, and I walk to 3 different stores all the time. Just today I walked over 14k steps, over 6 miles, and according to my Fitbit and MFP, I burned 500 calories.

Did I actually? Someone else told me that walking doesn't actually burn calories.

Of course walking burns calories, it takes energy/fuel to move anything (including your body) from one place to another and we get our fuel from the food we eat, that we conveniently measure in Calories. If I sit on my bum all day I'd only burn around 1800 Calories a day, but by moving my 200lb body around all day, taking 25000 steps I burn >3000 in a day.

MaiLinna wrote: »

I'm wondering this as well. I have a Fitbit and I keep everything set to sedentary because I usually spend the day in my small apartment playing games or cleaning. But now I do a lot more grocery shopping, and I walk to 3 different stores all the time. Just today I walked over 14k steps, over 6 miles, and according to my Fitbit and MFP, I burned 500 calories.

Did I actually? Someone else told me that walking doesn't actually burn calories.

Walking sure burns calories. even breathing burn calories. your body requires/burns calories at all time, just at a different rate.
for example, during my workout rest day, i do slow cardio, walking for an hour on a threadmill, and that would burn around 300-ish calories.

with fitbit and any other trackers, they are great for metrics, but not entirely 100% accurate. i would say give and take 10-30% margin of error depending on the activity. i use fitbit blaze myself.

spyro88 wrote: »

Hello, I am wondering whether people think it's possible to lose weight just by walking combined with a healthier diet (I was eating a lot of fast food and takeaways before and am making big improvements here). I am quite overweight at the moment, actually just into the bottom of the 'obese' category on BMI

So, if I walk round my local park for say 45 minutes each day (including some hills) and use my fitbit to record steps, do you think that this would help, or is the only way to join a gym??

Walking is fine, I know someone who hates the gym and has lost loads of weight by walking and controlling her food intake. I'm the opposite and love the gym but I include walking as part of my steady state cardio routines. Crack on and make it happen.