Point of Walking
Green605
Posts: 15 Member
I asked one of my acquaintances on here if walking does anything, especially walking fast. He told me walking and doing cardio exercise basically does only a little. So what would that mean without going to a gym ur screwed? That doesn't make total sense. This summer I've been going on walking and hiking trips in the park.. So is there any point of walking all this much? I don't eat like a filthy pig either.
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Weight loss comes from food intake compared to how many calories your body needs every day. Walking has other health benefits. Resistance training (going to the gym) helps preserve muscle as you lose weight. A balanced weight loss program would have all three, but you can lose weight through dieting alone.15
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Not screwed. You don't have to exercise at all to lose weight. Just stay within your calorie limit.
Your acquaintance is wrong. Exercise, including walking, is good for your health. Walking at a brisk pace for 40 minutes brings up your heart rate and burns calories. For me, it's about 200 calories burned. I like to be able to eat more food as a result of burning more calories. Food is good.16 -
I lost 60 pounds. I ate at my calorie goal and walked daily. I did add in some yoga dvds that I do at home. I have never been to the gym. I am not interested in joining the only gyn in my town, and I am not allowed to lift heavy. I do think that lifting is good for you, but if you aren't able to go to the gym you will still be able to lose weight. Your eating is what is most important for weight loss. You may not be able to get the body composition you want without lifting, but even then I imagine you can find alternatives to the gym.7
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Diet for weight management. Cardio for feeling good. Gym for looking good naked.
All healthful. Different results.19 -
Walking and doing cardio does not NOT do nothing. It is used for lung and heart health. This should be the primary reason you would want to do anything like walking, hiking, biking, etc. But it can also help you with your NET calorie GOALS as well. You sort of get to eat more per se, and thus help you a wee bit with your calorie deficit.
MFP is designed for you to eat back calories. For example your NET calories is 1400 and you exercise burning 300 calories.
Calories consumed will be 1700 - 300 (exercise) = 1400 NET CALORIES. You are now in calorie balance.
But do not be swayed that you HAVE to exercise to loose weight. It is not necessary for weight loss but perfect in order to help you maintain a healthy body and perhaps add some longevity to your life! If you want to add even more benefits to your health, add in strength training for muscle maintaining/building, and even to make you look prettier if you like!
edited for spelling/clairity8 -
I find walking extremely helpful in reaching my daily calorie goals...eating 1200 calories is really difficult, netting 1200 is a piece of cake.9
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Keeps your heart healthy. You'll see next time you have to do something strenuous, you will have that "extra energy".
Isn't all this about getting healthy anyway?8 -
Walking completely helps with my diet. I walk 5.5 miles, very quickly (4 mph), and burn at least 500 calories each time. I am then able to eat make some of those calories.2
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Walking and cardio is fantastic...your acquaintance really does not have much of a clue about it, if he says it does "only a little"3
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Ideally, you'd do more than walking, but life isn't ideal. Walking is AWESOME. At the end of the day, what matters is that you're doing whatever you're willing and able to stick to and meeting your goals.2
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The point of walking is hatching Pokemon eggs, duh
Okay but seriously, yes, walking is good. Walking is pretty much the only exercise I do. On days I don't do any walking I only burn 1600 calories. With walking it's more like 1800-2200.20 -
Walking burns calories. It might not seem like many calories, but if you walk a mile every day it will make a small but significant increase in how much you can eat. I'm on a tight calorie allowance, so it's absolutely worth it for me. As for hiking, a,reasonable length hike can burn more calories than most people burn in a cardio gym session, and is a whole lot less dull imo.
Apart from that, NOT walking regularly is pretty awful for your health. Your body is made to walk (and run) significant distances and suffers badly if you don't. Some of the benefits are listed above, but one of the big issues with not walking, which I don't see mentioned, is loss of bone density. Your bones are built up in proportion to the stress that's put on them, particularly stress from weight bearing exercise like walking. If you don't walk, your bones will become less dense and you will be at risk of brittleness and osteoporosis later, especially if you are a woman.
So no, it is not pointless, and you are not screwed, no matter what kind of pig you eat like. There's a daft line of thought which goes "strength training builds muscle, cardio doesn't, therefore cardio is pointless". It makes no sense. Cardio burns calories, and more importantly, it's crucial to health.
I think a lot of people who say that have never had to stick to a 1200cal net allowance, or they would understand the value of cardio in making weight loss bearable and sustainable when it otherwise wouldn't be.6 -
I asked one of my acquaintances on here if walking does anything, especially walking fast. He told me walking and doing cardio exercise basically does only a little. So what would that mean without going to a gym ur screwed? That doesn't make total sense. This summer I've been going on walking and hiking trips in the park.. So is there any point of walking all this much? I don't eat like a filthy pig either.
Your friend is wrong. Walking, moving, is great for you. There's more to health than burning a few calories. Should you do some sort of weight bearing/resistance exercise? Yes. THAT is good for you as well. Does it need to be lifting weights in a gym? No.
Being active is very important for health. And, for interests sake, google "N.E.A.T" "Non-exercise thermogenesis".3 -
Walking every morning of course helps with my calorie goals. I've also noticed if I skip the morning walk, I'm more likely to make poor food choices and then feel sluggish throughout the day.1
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Watch the video my doctor told me to watch on YouTube: 23 and 1/2 hours by Dr Mike Evans. It's an extremely informative 9 minute video, really helped me! I walk at least 6 days a week now, and no longer have to be on high blood pressure meds, and have lost 27 lbs.4
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Walking is the reason I can eat 2000 calories instead of being tortured with 1600 at the most. I couldn't imagine how hard it would be to lose weight if I didn't have exercise in my journey. I was 185 lbs before I started walking and now I sit at 155. Don't ever let someone tell you that walking is pointless. If it gets you up and moving that's definitely a positive.8
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Walking is a fantastic exercise for weight loss, By walking 45 minute a day you will burn 225 to 360 calories. Consequently, with this pace you can lose one pounds a week if you walk 45 minute a day every day.0
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Without my walking i would struggle to stay in a deficit. Walking lots everyday helps me in many ways.3
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Overall, I'm very pleased with being able to walk. It's a routine that my father enjoys, and his father before him, and his before him. I can see why.I spend about 70 minutes a day walking (2 walks!) my dogs. This earns me about 300 calories a day to eat. That's a pretty nice snack.
My legs are looking nicer, it's dramatically improved my endurance, my lung capacity is up and it's great for my back. It improves my mood (even on not-so-nice days), and I get a chance to make some vitamin D with short doses of sun exposure. I love getting out and observing the changing seasons, and I took up photographing the interesting things I see.
Interestingly, I heard a program on NPR the other day discussing the similarities between what they called "blue zones", regions where people lived on average significantly longer than the rest of the world. One of the key things they identified was walking... people in the "blue zones" walk a LOT. It's integrated into their daily lives and as a pastime as well. When asked specifically if these people (Sardinia (Italy), Okinawa (Japan), Ikaria (Greece) Nikoya (Costa Rica), and Loma Linda (USA)) exercised, the answer was "no, but they walk everywhere".
The CDC (Centers for Disease Control) recommends everyone walk; regardless of your weight. Evidence suggests walking itself improves health outcomes for people whether they lose weight or not.
So by all means, walk!7 -
gwynethsomeday wrote: »Diet for weight management. Cardio for feeling good. Gym for looking good naked.
All healthful. Different results.
I'm tired of this highly subjective trope.
The gym is not required to look good naked since "look good" is highly subjective and not everyone agrees that the physique that can be attained in the gym (presumably with a progressive resistance program) is the only one that looks good naked.12 -
Walking is fun, it gives me extra calories to eat, time to unwind, better blood pressure, better heart health, it's the best recovery exercise the day following a hard workout or while recovering from certain injuries, it's not costly, it can be done anywhere (I even walk around the house sometimes while on the phone). What exactly are you trying to get out of walking that your friend doesn't think is worth it?
When after a hike I get 800 extra calories and I could indulge in whatever I want, that's not nothing. Let alone how great the hike itself feels.3 -
OP, is your acquaintance a gym junkie, by any chance?3
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lol, tell him to take a hike.11
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I'll echo all the walking support. I'm 5'3" and 108 pounds which many people would consider a weight that is hard to maintain or are under the impression that you'd have to starve to be that weight. I walk daily and, depending on how much I've walked, I can happily eat 1900 to 2300 calories per day and sometimes still have calories left on the table if I've done other exercise that day.1
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I asked one of my acquaintances on here if walking does anything, especially walking fast. He told me walking and doing cardio exercise basically does only a little. So what would that mean without going to a gym ur screwed? That doesn't make total sense. This summer I've been going on walking and hiking trips in the park.. So is there any point of walking all this much? I don't eat like a filthy pig either.
Well, walking isn't only good for people who eat like filthy pigs. Nice clean people like you who eat like flitting sparrows swooping gracefully amongst the willows can benefit from walking too.
Thank you for the chuckle!
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gwynethsomeday wrote: »Diet for weight management. Cardio for feeling good. Gym for looking good naked.
All healthful. Different results.
I'm tired of this highly subjective trope.
The gym is not required to look good naked since "look good" is highly subjective and not everyone agrees that the physique that can be attained in the gym (presumably with a progressive resistance program) is the only one that looks good naked.
And in any case, what is highly subjective as looking good still doesn't take going to the gym. I really think some people just like to convince themselves that the only thing worth doing is what they do, and they come up with handy little phrases to convince themselves of that.
As for the walking, it can do from a little to quite a bit depending on intensity and how often people do it. But it's never worthless.
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Walking is great exercise. I jog a mile in the morning and then walk a mile in the evening. All great for the heart, mind and keeping toned legs! Well done and keep up with what you are doing X0
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I saw an oriole yesterday on my daily walk. I seldom see them in the city where I live. Show me one gym where I'm likely to see one other than on the television.
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gwynethsomeday wrote: »Diet for weight management. Cardio for feeling good. Gym for looking good naked.
All healthful. Different results.
I'm tired of this highly subjective trope.
The gym is not required to look good naked since "look good" is highly subjective and not everyone agrees that the physique that can be attained in the gym (presumably with a progressive resistance program) is the only one that looks good naked.
I didn't see this earlier, but I agree wholeheartedly. I feel like one of the reasons why this trope exists is because people can use it as a scapegoat; "Well, I would put effort into my physique/weight loss but I can't afford/don't have a gym near me, so I can't". I've seen people that have been hitting the gym for over a year that have similar aesthetic goals to myself but have not achieved half of what I have in that sense. I do lift weights, but I'm not currently in the gym trying to deadlift 200+ pounds because the body I want doesn't require that. If I ever stop seeing progress, maybe I'll aim for something more intense but that has yet to happen. If someone really wants something, they'll get it done with the resources they have instead of focusing on what they don't have or think they may need. All walking takes is your own feet and has a multitude of benefits.2
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