Is walking actually beneficial for weight loss?

Hang on, we are talking about a completely different understanding of "exercise" here. And it is an important distinction. For an Olympic swimmer, training is their literal full time job. Most people aren't exercising for 8-10 hours a day. So it's pointless to think about what professional athletes burn as very few people are training at that level.
We are talking about a garden variety exercise here which may be training 3-5 times a week for an hour tops which won't be even close to what a professional athlete does in a single day. Yes, I appreciate you acknowledged this in your post. I am just disagreeing with your "this isn't accurate" statement. Because it is accurate for 99.9% of the population.
As far as muscle mass burning more calories, it is true. However, it is not a significant number of calories per 24h period either. I think there was an article in MASS research review which estimated something like 7 calories per additional lb of muscle per day (I may be forgetting the exact number but it was definitely nowhere close triple digits for an average person).

I mean when you’re out walking you’re not on the sofa eating. So it’s a win.

Olympian athletes are completely different to the average joe on the street doing exercise. It's like comparing apples to oranges.

My post stands true for average people.

Elite athletes have their own training programs and nutrition plans to support them in their goals.

Yeah - I think of it as calorie deficit for weight loss, exercise for health. Walking and strength training are both great for women.

It must do if it burns calories, I think it's better we a fairly brisk walk though.

It's also good for sleep, mental health, bone density etc. Which can also indirectly affect eating patterns and therefore weight

The vast majority of your daily expenditure is NEAT - non exercise activity thermogenesis. Walking, going upstairs to the toilet, cleaning the house, hanging laundry, making kid's lunches and even fidgeting. Structured exercise, in comparison, makes very little impact. It's important for other things but not necessarily makes a great contribution to weight loss. If you like walking, then do walking. It all adds up.

Absolutely agree, Tour de France cyclists burn around 10K calories on a mountain stage and you never see a fat distance runner or for that matter, distance walker.

Not really. Exercise is a great for fitness and walking is definitely underrated, but you only burn about 100 calories for 2000-2500 steps, and most steps would be part of your normal activity level. So thinking you’re burning 400 ‘extra’ calories with that 10k step count is not correct.
The adage ‘you can’t outrun a bad diet’ is true. It IS about calorie deficit, but it’s very hard to calculate how much extra calories you burn to make a significant difference unless you are completely sedentary and suddenly start to run five miles a day. Keep walking, but to lose weight address your eating.

And if you're like me, if you're walking, you're not eating 💪

It can’t hurt!

For weight loss, as long as you have a calorie deficit alongside walking, it is one of the best things you can do. Higher intensity exercise can increase appetite more, making a calorie deficit harder.

However, for heart/cardiovascular health, you definitely need to get a bit of a sweat on too. So either up the intensity a few times a week with pace, walking up hill, or walk/jog.

For bone health and overall longevity, weight training is vital too. Thinking along the lines of walking up stairs, going to the toilet, etc in old age. Muscle strength decreases over time and needs stimulation to just maintain. Doesn't necessarily need to involve separate weights, could be body weight squats, press ups, dips, but small weights might be easier to start with on some exercises.

Overall, a combination is best, but you also need to start somewhere so if this is working for you now, don't stop. Just try and add in other bits as you go.

I do lots of walking, generally out and about and a lot of hill walking. I’d consider myself pretty fit and I was running for a while which I like but occasionally I was having a rest if my knees or hip hurt. I’d noticed people at the gym walking on the treadmill which bemused me then Instagram started feeding me all these incline walking shorts and I thought I’d give it a go and I think it’s made a difference to my fitness. I never run on treadmills, much prefer to run outside, but setting an incline on the treadmill in the gym and listening to a podcast is brilliant. It’s all uphill so feels like consistent effort, feels like a proper work out but don’t feel like am doing anything dodgy to my joints. It’s also something I don’t feel that I can’t be bothered to do.

As everyone has said, its the deficicit that loses the weight.

If you are over weight becuase you eat 3000 calories per day when you only need 2000 calories, then you will not lose weight by walking which will use at most 400 cals per day. You would actually continue to gain weight, but more slowly.

If you are just a couple of hundred calories over what you should be eating each day then the walking calories could certainly push you into deficit and would help weight loss.

Either way, walking gets you heart rate up without killing your joints, so its always going to be good for you irrespective of calories.

This isn’t accurate.

Olympic swimmers need something like 10,000kcals a day just to maintain their weight because of all of the exercise they do.

Exercise does burn calories and increases muscle mass - which helps with weight loss.

But more than that exercise is good for mental health, energy and sleep - which are vital for weight loss.

But you can’t outrun a bad diet - if you’re eating 10,000kcals a day but not an Olympic swimmer, then you’re going to be the size of a house.

do you have a Fitbit or some kind of fitness tracker?

If you can walk and and stay in a heart rate zone 2 for 20-30 mins each day the weight will fall off.

10000 steps a day is a minimum and unless you're getting your heart rate up in won't do much other than grease the wheels.

Hey - yep, agreed. Would modify 'diet' to 'unrealistic' diet or 'unsustainable' diet. I dropped 2.5 dress sizes (nearly 3 in the end) due to a change in my diet. And while I'm a healthier weight now I added a bit back on, I'm still the slim size I originally aimed for and still wear a small. I made lifestyle changes in my diet, rather than following fads. So, fad-dieting doesn't work, but realistic and sustainable changes in diet do work long-term. I'm the proof! 🥳

The fittest I have ever been was when I worked at spoons. 20,000 steps a day almost daily, lifting kegs, putting away deliveries and all that good stuff. Also think I burned a few calories seething at customers. Now I do the gym and all that, but I’m not hitting the same levels of activity.

Walking is a good start. I also hate exercise but I do have to do it now and I just think of it in terms of I need to stay strong so I stay young. My mum is 65 and physically fit while her sister is not. My aunt is very frail and menopause also seemed to hit her much harder. For me the best way to ensure I exercise is to scare myself.

Walking helped me lose weight (along with a calorie deficit and less carbs).

I don’t know how many calories I burned an hour - probably not many.

But if I was walking I wasn’t eating - so a stroll in the evenings or on weekends meant that I didn’t make myself a cup of tea or have a snack out of habit/boredom.

Exercise makes you feel so much better too.
And fresh air and sunlight make you feel so much better.
And when you feel better mentally, you lose weight easier.

It also helped with sleeping - another massive thing for weight loss.

It’s also good for your muscles and bones.

Walking definitely helps me, especially walking fast and if it's good hour a day.

YANBU to ask, but yes, walking is, for most people, excellent exercise, and can help wit weight loss

I'll be honest I have invested a fair bit of time on walking in the past. I never noticed any extra weight loss. I even bought a walking pad that's now gathering dust!

Sorry but this is false. Have a read of latest research. You don't burn off what you eat - it's a myth. Research might update but for now, it is very clear. It is entirely about food.

Older people that walk just 20 mins a day have 400% greater bone density. It’s absolutely vital.

I'm a walker OP and I find that walking (whether I'm actually hiking or generally doing errands near home) really makes a difference to how well I sleep at night. For me the improved sleep is the big thing that helps me make better food choices, have a bit more energy for thinking of better choices and then actually preparing them! So yes walking - but also quality sleep for me are key. Also, it's easy to develop more fitness than you think with regular walking, in a much less macho/competitive way than many other forms of exercise. Good luck!

It will make a difference, balanced with food intake (critical) but feeling fitter and healthier may also motivate you to eat healthily and the time spent on walking limits snacking windows too.

Primarily though walking will help your overall fitness, muscle tone in legs and mental health. Don't underestimate how important those things are. People will say but you also need to lift weights, but you need to do cardio too, blah blah, but if walking is something you enjoy and will keep up, it's a million times better than nothing! Better than joining a gym and not going because you can't face it ...