I love to walk and that's about it. It's the only form of exercise I can stick with because I enjoy it. How reasonable is it to assume I can get to goal just by walking and watching what I eat? (I calorie count) Am I just kidding myself that this is all I need to lose and maintain? Any success stories out there?

I've lost some weight just by watching what I eat, and only 15 lbs. in one year is to sloooooow for me. I need to speed this thing up! BUT I don't have a lot of time to waste doing something that probably won't work. Any advice? TIA!


Heidi

My sister lost 50 pounds in about 6 months from running / fast walking about 3 miles everynight... plus dieting with one 'free day' a week. She also did a few crunches everynight and weight training a few times a week.

I've been on a diet for about 2 weeks and I've bought alot of exercise equipment (Shapely Secrets, The Bean, Pilates, and Walk Away the Pounds) and I think doing the 3 Mile brisk walk from WATP everynight really makes me sweat more and get tired faster... so it must be working better than the others

Good Luck!

My mum. She has a serious heart condition which means that she can't do anything too strenuous, but has started doing a lot of walking and says that the weight is definitely coming off now. I think she does 6+ miles a day easily, but it helps living on the beachfront in Spain to have the weather and scenery to do it. It also helps that she lives about a mile away from work (it's their own business) so walks there and back along the beach a couple of times a day. She doesn't do any other exercise, although she does vaguely keep an eye on what she eats.

Walking or running burns around 100 calories a mile (it adjusts by how fast you're moving and how much you weigh). So to burn thirty pounds you'd be walking over 1,000 miles. That's a lot of walking. (Thirty pounds @3500 calories per pound = 105,000 calories to burn.)

Heidi, the National Weight Control Registry did a survey of successful weight loss maintainers and the most common exercise used to lose and maintain weight was -- walking. Combining walking with calorie counting should be a winning combination!

A few suggestions: walk 5 - 6 days a week and try to do it briskly (like you're walking fast for the bus). You want to break a sweat and get your heart rate up, because that means you're burning more calories. Try music or books on tape to make the time go by faster. Shoot for 30 - 60 minutes each time.

You know, exercise is good for so many things besides weight loss -- overall health, our hearts, our moods -- that we can't afford NOT to exercise!

Have fun and let us know how it goes!

I lost my first 30 pounds by only walking and calorie counting, it took me 4-5 months. I've since stepped it up to running but you can do it with walking too! Be aware that as you go along you will have to step up your walking though to keep reaping the benefits and losing weight, you'll have to gradually step up the intensity/speed and/or distance as you get into better shape.

Hi Heidi,

I've been mostly walking for exercise this summer. I started out training for a triathlon and then aggravated a herniated disc in my back, so switched from running/swimming/biking to walking and physical therapy exercises. Right after the injury, I was losing weight at the same rate that I was while training, 1.5-2 lbs a week. Now things have slowed down some, in part because I starting eating a bit more and walking less, but I'm still losing about a pound a week. Which would work out to 15 pounds in four months, rather than a year.

At first I was walking a mile at a time 3-4 times a day, and now I'm walking 3 miles to work. Sometimes I walk round trip, but usually I'll take the bus or my car one way. Because I've been heading to work, I been going about 3.5mi/hr, which for me is less that a true exercise pace - my heart rate doesn't go up and I don't start to sweat (except from the heat!) So I think I should start incorporating more walks home and make those more oriented towards cardiovascular effort. One thing I've read that has been helpful is that you can incorporate intervals into walking - alternating periods of intense effort with periods of less effort. It's hard for me to imagine wanting to walk fast for the bus for my entire 50 minute walk, but I could rush to an imaginary bus for 5 minutes and then walk more slowly for a bit and then rush to that bus again.

So, yes, absolutely, do the exercise you like to do and it will help you lose weight faster. I would say though, that the core strengthening exercises that I've been doing (yoga before the injury, physical therapy since) have been very helpful. I had a similar injury last year, and I've recovered much more quickly this time, and having strong abs and back muscles will help prevent more problems in the future. And I have an identical twin sister, and we're about the same weight now, but we noticed when I saw her last week that I was a bit more "toned" around the mid-section, making my weight loss more visible. So adding some kind of core work or possibly weight training, could both help you in terms of health and staying active, and in speeding along and making your weight loss more apparent. Yoga or pilates or some kind of core focused exercise video would work.

But don't let that suggestion get in the way of walking - if you like to walk, and other forms of exercise aren't appealing, just start walking! You can always incorporate something else later, if you decide you want to. I was losing my focus on walking, so now I've started posting to the walk/run thread - it's really fun to have a goal and keep track of how much I've achieved.

I agree that walking can result in weight loss. Do you have any hilly areas in your neighborhood, or some stairs? Those will help burn more calories.

Also interval walking...fast and slow, will help to mix things up

My treadmill is stuck at an incline, so I'm forced to push myself a little. I can't get outside for a good walk because I have the kids and they complain the whole way! I'm not doing that again! LOL!

Thanks for the encouraging words!

Heidi

My g/f walks and only walks, and has lost and maintained a 50+ weightloss for 15 years... So, it's a great exercise...

Heidi -- when the kids were little I would make them bike and I would walk, they wouldn't tire so easily... The problem arose when I would bike and have them bike too, well, then they complained the whole way... I was going too far, too fast, for them...

I also love to walk and it's the only consistent exercise that I stick too. I remember my mom and I walking when I was a kid so she could lose maybe 10 pounds to lower her blood pressure and it worked like a charm.

I've been watching what I eat and walking for a litle over a month now and have lost 12 lbs. I'd like to up my walking a bit but average about 60-70 min per day and basically do this 5-6 days out of the week. I take a lot of enjoyment out of walking so I see it as a win win situation. Good Luck!

If you're going to choose one exercise to do, WALKING would definitely be the one. It most definitely is my main exercise. And I count calories as well. I think you will be very pleased with the results that you can obtain with that combination. Good luck!

I've been thinking something similar. While I do go to the gym, I feel a bit lost when it comes to the weight machines. I'd love to get a personal trainer, but I simply cannot afford it right now. Does walking build muscle?


I'm going to start a new post about the treadmill right now.