To think I can lose weight by walking 5 miles a day, Monday to Friday?

[NoNameNoGame]

AIBU?

Mon to Fri walking 5 miles a day.

Watching what I eat but not too strict otherwise I will just cave in. So cutting out bread, potatoes, rice and pasta.

Can I lose weight? I'm looking to lose 2 stone by Sep?

I think it all depends on whether or not you are eating a packet of Jaffa Cakes after the walk.

I agree with pp that your body will get used to it - have you thought about slowly increasing the activity to include a bit of jogging? After a few weeks you might try walking 2 miles and then jogging a minute walking 30 seconds for a mile and walking 2 miles and slowly building up the jog/walk session. If you think that might work you could look up the Jeff Galloway method - there is a great facebook group called girls that Jeff as well which would offer support.

Start logging all your calories on my fitness pal. Work out your TDEE

tdeecalculator.net And reduce the calorie total by 20% in order to lose weight.

Yes it is very possible to lose 2 stone by September but only if you eat in a calorie deficit. Good luck!

It will also depend on how you walk - will it be a five mile amble or will you be doing a route march and be breathless for most of it? But you will need to cut down your calories too and not succumb to eating more because you will be hungry and you WILL feel like youve earned it!!!

Thank you all.

I will definitely be building this up after a few weeks. I suffer from shin splints so will test out short bursts of jogging too. My walks are not rambling and does put me out of breath.

When I got my first puppy, I did 2 extra walks a day, approx 3-3.5 miles in total.

I lost 7 lbs over 2 months, without changing my eating habits at all.

The puppy was a little bastard though, and I did fair bit of getting off my arse to check on him and grab things he shouldn't have got hold of.

Yes of course. 5 miles is about 4-500 kcals depending on how quick you walk. Get that heartrate up, keep your kcals the same as you are now and you can't lose. We'll you can. Yay. Walking is so underrated.

Walking is great. I walk a lot (fast) and have Apple watch. When I power walk it burn more calories so you want to walk fast and get your heart rate up and sweat..a 5 mile slow walk won't do as much but a 5 mile fast pace will count as fat burning or cardio if even faster pace. Have been slowly losing weight this way, lost half a stone these last few weeks but loosely watching calories too,and if I snack it's a small amount of nuts/trail mix.
If you fill your plate with salad and veggies along whatever smallish main you're eating it seems like you are eating a lot but it isn't calorie dense food. I have my main so smallish portion of curry n rice, bean chilli, whatever and a big salad and some stir fried broccoli/asparagus/mushroom/whatever as well. Never feel deprived and always full so don't need to snack in the evening.

My dp started walking 2-3 miles a day at the start of the year. He hasn't massively changed his diet but has cut down on bread/cheese.

He's lost around 20lbs. It can definitely work.

I'm doing less exercise than him but being much stricter about food and I've lost 28lbs. I have more to lose overall though.

If you're walking that far and looking for support you should join the walk 1000 miles walking for weight loss Facebook group.

I found that walking is not a particularly effective way to lose weight. It just uses too few calories. Of course, the heavier you are, the more calories you will burn. You would need to weigh around 13 stone to burn 100 calories in a mile.

Walking 5 miles a day at a normal pace won't do much.

However walking 5 miles away a good pace, so your out of breath and flushed will work a lot more. Better than sitting on your arse isn't it. ? !

Weighed myself this morning. 11st 1.5lbs. The heaviest I have ever been. My goal is to eventually reach 9st. Although I know I will need to ramp up the exercise to achieve this. Perhaps July could be my goal to start.

Can you get some hand weights and also add in some squats and bicep curls and arm extensions. That should help with your upper arms without pressure on your shin splints.
Maybe also add in time restricted eating so push back breakfast and eat dinner early so you have a longer overnight fast and shorter eating window.
Every little helps.

5 miles in one go at a fairly moderate pace (3.5/4 miles an hour) - yes.

5 miles across a day - no.

More exercise than your previous none will be great for you - though you're more likely to lose inches than weight, so measuring your waist and hips may be more encouraging than the scales.

If you start finding it easy then increase the intensity so you are still getting out of breath. When ds started school I added about 4 miles a day fast walking to my routine and lost 2 stone by that Christmas - sadly injury later meant I regained all of that and some, but I'm trying to build up some exercise again.

Thanks! It's 5 miles in one go. I have defo cut back on food so missing out bread, rice, potatoes and pasta. Plus I am trying to eat within an 8 hour window. I will check in with my progress for sure.

I walk 5 miles a day and whilst I haven’t lost weight I haven’t gained any either and I don’t tend to watch what I eat. I used to be overweight before having children and breastfeeding meant the weight dropped off and my walking has kept the weight off.
If you are looking to lose weight you will need to be strict with your diet and it’s definitely worth walking, the health benefits are there but it’s not necessarily the best fat burning exercise.

Perhaps once you have started doing your walks you could look to doing couch to 5k or something similar?
I love walking, it really clears my head so I hope you enjoy it

@AliceAbsolum according to my Apple Watch my 5 mile run yesterday only burnt 342 calories 😫 so I think walking would be a bit less

I find that any sustained activity change will give you a fair boost, and anecdotally at least, the heavier you are, the bigger the initial body reaction will be.

After all, your body is literally carrying more weight. I did a PT session recently where my trainer made me wear a jacket made of weights. I pointed out to him afterwards that the jacket weighed half of the amount I'd already lost in fat (30lbs).

The effect won't last for ever though, so as PP say, make sure you increase the effort as you go along.

And on the diet front - it has to work for you, but I found going cold turkey never worked for me. I have spent the past 18 months steadily adjusting my dietary habits to the point I haven't had takeaway in a month, ate all vegetarian at the weekend, and had a starch-carb free dinner last night. Ease yourself into it!

Definitely a marathon not a sprint.

If you are anything like me, you will be starving after your walks so it's sort of counter productive ;)

It will definitely benefit you, if you start at 5 and up it afterwards, get some hand weights to use even watching tv.
I am a firm believer using energy creates more energy, 5 miles is a good start in the right direction, add cutting down or replacing certain foods, it will fall off you, start small changes, frylite is a small change that makes a massive difference to your weight, I use it on everything, oven cook most things, I never fry food.
If you drink lots of alcohol it probably won't help.
I walk approx 3 tp 5 miles daily, excluding trips to the school shop the stairs at home, it keeps me trim and in shape.

Rice potaties and pasta are not bad, make your own sauce with smaller portions. It will work better long-term if you allow things in the right sizes.

In the past three months I've gone from doing about 8,000 steps to 20,000 steps mon-fri and have been doing 16:8 most days for nearly 20 years as I rarely eat anything until 11/12, I'm heavier than ever although my legs have changed shape.