3 yrs ago, I came down from 229 lbs to 194 lbs. Since then I have had ups and downs, that is, I will gain upto 10 lbs, workout again and lose it, but I never went down beyond 194 lbs.
This time, again I went to 210 lbs, and now I have been exercising for the past 1+ month and down about 6 lbs.
Now the perplexing question I have is, is it possible to do moderate exercise (that is, low intensity exercise for a longer duration) and still lose weight? Because all I'm doing for weight loss is walk 2.5 miles each day at a leisurely pace around my house... also I joined 'Get in Shape for Women' (small group personal training) and taking 2 classes a week to do fairly simple, moderate intensity floor exercises (if exercises get to high intensity, I only stop).
I'm not too much motivated to run or jog or increase walking speed beyond 3.2 miles/hour, etc. Do you think I can still lose weight over a period of 6 - 8 months?
It's entirely possible, but if you're not wanting to up your activity, you need to look at what you're eating. You just have to be more active and eat less. If you have a lazy day, you eat less, if you're more active you can eat more. I track my calories with an app on my phone, and use a FitBit to track my activity. It helps me a lot so that I can eat according to my activity levels.
Losing weight is 80/20 food/exercise. There is a saying, you can't outrun your fork.
I also wear a fitbit that tells me how many calories a day I burn, and I log everything I eat. But yes, walking is wonderful exercise and you need to do what you enjoy and will do long term.
Agree with msgooch -- it's all about diet. For example, assume that your total energy expenditure is 2200, and you do an extra 2.5 miles of walking. That's probably 250-300 calories burned. You can increase the pace, or increase the distance, but that takes time and effort, and it's not going to shift the amount of calories burned by much. Meanwhile, something as simple as 1 cup of rice is 200 calories right there, so just one extra cup of rice would undo the weight loss effects of the walking.
I definitely encourage you to take a close look at your current diet, and see what you can substitute / cut out if you are looking to continue to lose weight without spending more time walking. Exercise has its own benefits, but when it comes to weight loss, controlling how much you eat is critical.
Yes, I agree with what everyone else said, it would be more productive to pay attention to how many calories you are eating than to focus on walking or exercising.
If you want to see how much difference it would make to walk faster or longer, you can look up a free calorie calculator online and put in different distances and amounts of time. If you can, try to find one that lets you put in two of these three variables: distance, speed and time, AND your current height, weight and age. The more it lets you put in, the more accurate it will be.
When I have plenty of time to walk, sometimes I enjoy doing a long walk and being able to eat some extra calories, but not all the time. Also, it's awfully easy to eat more calories than you burn, as I guess everyone said already.
I'm such a shame - please help me!
