How Much Success with just Walking?

My first 15 lbs was lost on almost just diet alone (no walking). I think walking is often underestimated. I know you will hear all this target heart rate stuff, must be sweating etc... in your reading/research. If adding a daily walk to your routine (if it currently does not exist) and making noticeable healthier choices/portion control than you already are... you will lose weight guaranteed. Whether it is the change in diet or walking that is debatable. Typically the more you have to lose the faster/easier it will leave.

I am now stuck on the last 10-15 lbs of stubborn fat and starting this July am going to attack it with aggressive cardio and really disciplined eating because it is not moving even though I am doing the same I did to drop to this point.

I am surprised at how easy it is to lose weight with a little discipline and lifestyle change. Give it 3 months of an honest attempt and you will see drastic results.

It's all about how many calories you burn vs how many calories you consume.

There will probably come a point when, if you're looking to increase your overall fitness, walking alone won't do it for you anymore. But if it raises your heart rate, you aren't overeating, and (most of all) you enjoy it, then it's certainly good enough exercise. Moving around a lot is one of the best things you can do for your body.

Walking is great exercise, but you have to walk really far, like six miles.

eating is a big part, now if all your doing is walking slowly nothing will change you have to get your heart rate up to get anything done

Walking is AWESOME for you! I'm sure if you are walking daily AND counting your calories, you will see some weight fall off. And you may decide to become a runner

That is exactly what I have done. I have lost 25 pounds by watching my calories and walking the dog every day. No major excercise on my part, and the dog needed to be walked anyway.

Walking is great exercise, but you have to walk really far, like six miles.

Nonsense!

Walking is a great exercise for those just starting or starting over. Walking is very easy and, for the most part, low impact. You do it everywhere.

Keep in mind the human body is made to move AND to conserve energy. Exercise, while healthy and very beneficial, induces a "starvation" response in the body. As the body expends energy, it will try to conserve energy for basic survival. Kind of weird, isn't it? Your body is also very good at adapting to activity to more effectively use energy and conserving at the same time.

Many of you have probably noticed you have to walk longer, increase your walk speed, changing exercise locations, etc to continue to see progress. Eventually your body will adjust to all the changes you can throw at your walking program and weight loss will plateau or fall off, while health benefit continues.

Strength training will add to your success. Quite simply, strength training will increase your lean body mass which will increase more your body burns body fat. This will also help to increase your metabolism. The higher the metabolism, the more you burn. an interesting point, too, is lean tissue continues to burn body fat even after your workout. Energy is required during the "recovery" phase of exercise to repair muscle tissue, etc.

As one person stated in an earlier post, it also depends on the person and their individual goals.

I would also recommend to STOP using the scale as your tell all unless you are considered clinically obese or extremely overweight. The scale will tell you your body mass, but not your body fat percentage. Lean mass is more dense that fat mass per unit volume. 1 cubic inch of lean tissue weights more that 1 cubic inch of body fat. As lean mass increases and body fat decrease, one can remain the same in overall body mass (weight) or even increase in mass, while body measurements tighten and clothes fit better.

I hope this helps some. Feel free to message me for additional help.

BMI indices can be misleading due to them being based on age, height, and weight. Your local fitness center should be able to measure your body fat via caliper calculations or bio feedback instruments.

I think you can have success with just walking,