Walking to lose weight.

[Gauri]

Anyone lost weight just counting steps? How many did you have to do in a day and for how long before you saw a difference in inches/weight.

[Gauri]

Anyone?

[GreyAndGoldInTheMeadow]

I have lost 5 and a half stone as a combination of calorie counting and walking. I didn't count steps but used map my walk or endomondo apps on my phone to track my walks. I was doing aprox 5 miles a day over a couple of walks, can't say how much of my weight loss was down to the walking alone though.

[Gauri]

Thanks GREY. I am terrible at the food thing and I don't eat much. When I tracked my food, I eat less than 1200kcals a day. I walk about 7km a day but am not able to lose the weight. In fact I think in the 3 weeks I have been tracking my steps (averaging 12k a day), I have put on a kilo!

[GreyAndGoldInTheMeadow]

I was also eating 1200 a day, but a know I get demotivated by the scales as the weight never comes off as quickly as I expect it should. When I started I only got on the scales every once every 3 weeks as then I could see a greater drop. Stick with it and you will get there! [smie]

[GreyAndGoldInTheMeadow]

*once every, not every once!

[Gauri]

Thank you. That's all I wanted to hear. Some reassurance.

[DownWithThisTypeOfThing]

When I got rid of my car a few years ago I thought that at least one benefit would be all the weight I'd lose from walking everywhere because walking at least an extra 20 miles a week must burn some calories you'd think? I don't think I lost anything.

There were other benefits stamina, general fitness etc, but I didn't see anything on the scales.

I think you have to exercise hard for it to count towards weight loss. There's probably a version of power walking with weights which has some impact but for me, just normal walking didn't do anything.

[Gauri]

Thanks down. I think same may be true for me too. However I do feel happier for walking. I also think even though I haven't lost weight, I feel trimmer. Maybe firming up?

[lemonstartree]

Heres the thing. if you walk BRISKLY for a hour you will burn about 250 kcals. Thats BRISKLY - enough to be out of breath. To lose 1lb of fat you need to have a calorie defecit of about 1750. so Maths tells you that if you keep your intake exactly the same, and walk briskly for an hour (this will be about 6000 steps) you will have a 1lb of fat calorie defecit in 7 days.

What actually happens is that you think - "Oh I walked for an hour today its ok fr me to have another biscuit" - which 's 100cals and a beer (200cals) so you wipe out any benefit really really easily.

To lose weight you need to restrict calorie input - to maintain weight loss you need to increase caloie burn ...

Most people vastly understimate the calories they consume, and overestimate the value of exercise in burning calories...

[Gauri]

Lemon tree I agree with u.

However I have the most sluggish metabolism. I do not see a difference in weight until I starve myself. I tried this last year and lost 4 kilos. To put it on again in 6 or so months due to an injury (I could not work out and also became lazy at maintaining the 'diet' of only salad for lunch and no sugar).

[Gauri]

Sorry, posted too quickly.

I am trying to see if I can walk the weight off. I am averaging 12000steps per day. Although I am not really changing my diet drastically, I am more aware of what I eat. But still no joy after 3 weeks of this.

[ouryve]

The walking won't really help with weight loss (or else I'd be like Twiggy) but is good for you in plenty of other ways. It's the one exercise I can do, so long as I have decent supportive footwear, so I do as much of it as I can manage. It keeps my muscle tone up (essential to stop my joints from deteriorating) and, apart from my slightly high BMI, all the various things that get measured all the time once you hit middle age and have to visit the GP regularly for other things (blood pressure, total blood cholesterol etc) are good.

[Gauri]

Yes, you are right. Arh! Will have to be on salads again. ????????

[Dynomite]

I have tried but to be honest it didn't really work, I needed cardio to actually lose weight. Although walking did help me get started with getting used to exercise, it wasn't really enough. My mum, who can't really exercise much bc of various knee/back problems, got an exercise bike and that really helped her (it's low impact, don't need to work too hard either).