Do you think walking your steps daily helps you with weight loss?

[Peonytimeguys]

Post meno, mid fifties woman here - I go to the gym 3/4 times a week, mostly for heaving lifting. I watch what I eat. I walk the dog 3 times a week. I'm active...but I also have an ass on chair job and I work long hours.

I know I need to walk more - actively build it into my day. But there never seems the time.

I'd like to lose half a stone that just won't budge. I'm being even more careful with food (post meno, a moment on the lips, a lifetime on the hips). But would doing 7 or 8K steps a day help with this?

I would love to hear thoughts - but also older women, in particular, only because I think the meno journey changes things a lot

I don’t think unless you’re walking a lot further it’ll help. I’m 50 and am averaging 10,000 steps a day, up from 7000 a day last year and it’s made no difference. I saw a tiktok of a younger woman who went from walking next to nothing to doing 15,000 steps a day and she said she lost weight. But bigger increase and she also had a lot to lose.

No. Food consumption is the thing that affects gain or loss for us average Joes.

It’s good for you but the calorie burn will be pretty negligible. Movement is good for you generally though so do it for that reason!

No, it makes no difference to weight loss.

No. I used to walk 12 to 15 k daily and it made no difference.

I dont think any exercise really helps weight loss it's more calorie consumption that counts.

Obviously though we should still exercise because its good for us.

Exercise has lots of health benefits, but I don’t think that weight loss is one of them as a general rule.

No, I walk loads and am still overweight. I sometimes wonder if it would help if I could do 20000 steps every day but I have joint issues and can’t.

To lose 1lb of fat you would need to exercise at full pelt for 7 hours, but if you spent more time walking it would mean you burnt calories and would have less time to eat.

Only if you don't compensate with less incidental movement over the course of the day, which can happen unconsciously and is quite common when people increase the amount of planned exercise they do.

I think it does as long as you don't then 'treat' yourself to extra calories for doing the walk.

I have started regularly walking over 15k steps a day as well as dieting.

It depends how much you walk already. I’ve lost just over 11 stone in the last few years and walking is one of the big things I’ve done.

But I’ve gone from dropping the kids at school (literally a 1 minute walk - you could see it from the window!) and walking very little else to walking 5 miles a day.

It really helped with weight loss in the first year/eighteen months, but then I had to add more exercise in to have the same impact.

Swimming is good if you’ve got a local pool.

It makes no difference to those who are consistently overeating. If you’re eating at or below your maintenance calories, it will certainly make a difference.

I find if I walk longer distances purposefully and at length - as opposed to clocking up steps here and there throughout the day, then it does make a difference to me. But I have more weight to lose than half a stone.

Put it this way, I am not doing any exercise (disabled) and have lost 5 stone since October 2024 by changing my diet. I am eating a Mediterranean diet - lots of veg, pulses, olive oil, lean protein. I eat very few carbs, which is important for me because I am so inactive.

I’m fairly lean - follow a bodybuilding lifestyle and wear size 8-10. 25000 steps a day absolutely sheds the fat off me; 15000 have to be intentional 4mph minimum steps, then the other 10000 can just be pottering.

How do you find the time to do that many steps per day? I have an office job and 2 primary aged children and even when I’m really trying I can’t manage more than about 17000 steps.

tbh anorexics like walking because it doesn’t build muscle or make you hungry like other cardio- i mean that’s extreme but it absolutely can be used to burn calories which is how you lose weight. But you’d have to reduce calories as well and do a very high number daily (15,20k?) AND it would still be a long term thing. So no silver bullet

Yes it helps as it’s increasing your overall calories you’ll burn a day through movement. But the main thing to lose weight is be in a calorie deficit. walk the dog every day, or get a walking pad for home. It all adds up.

No, i spent a year walking 15k steps a day with walks between 15 - 20 miles at weekends, for a year, building up to a 26 mile walk. I gained a stone that year.

Walking more will only result in weight loss if you're in a calorie deficit. So it's all very well eating healthy but if you're not in a deficit it'll make no difference.

TDEE calculator and nutracheck are your friends here.

Yes it makes some difference. It’s like saying should you earn more or spend less. Both help but one is easier than the other.

I average 20k per day, i walk fast and go for hills. And nah, no noticeable weight loss. It helps keep the weight off though, and you feel like you can get away with a few cheeky extra vino calories!

I do have leg muscles like rocks though!

I do 2 hours in the morning before I start work, and then another 45 mins or so at lunch if that helps x