Is walking actually beneficial for weight loss?

[ygrittesnow5]

I hate exercising and rarely have time for the gym (although I could weight train at home I suppose). But I am and have been making a conscious effort to walk more for the last few months. With the school run, a lunchtime walk and an evening dog walk along with general pottering throughout the day, I am averaging at least 10,000 steps a day more usually more.

But will this actually do anything for weight loss? I know diet is the key factor by miles but I hope all this extra walking might help somewhere.

It can’t hurt!

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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).

With counting calories I lost 3.5 just walking, no gym or anything else. Lots of up hill walking as well. Only started running towards the end of my weight loss

It will do wonders for your general fitness and your mental wellness. Get out there and enjoy it.

I agree. There are many benefits to walking, both physical and mental, but realistically it's not going to help you lose much, if any, weight. Even strenuous exercise won't do that though it will tone your muscles and give you a leaner look. As you say, it's really down to diet.

I find it very helpful. But need to do a lot of it. 10k steps a day to maintain weight and 15 to 20k to lose it, and at pace too.
I'm 57 and 9 stone though so this means I have both the metabolism and calorie needs of a snail.

Yes, I've lost several stones over a number of years by ensuring I walk at least 10k steps per day, alongside a standing desk at work. My "diet" (very poor) hasn't changed at all, nor has my binge eating. I was 22 stones and am now down to 14 stones, all due to walking/increasing activity. But it's taken a loooong time!

Nail on the head. It's not all about weight loss.

Honestly, not for me. Not even x4 spin classes a week helped me lose weight! Yes my bum looked fab but no weight loss.

I put on 2 or 3 stone in my early/mid 40s. I've said on here before I guess it was peri, as I was always slim before then. I spent around the next 5 years being upset at how I looked, (think, 5ft 2", around 11 stone, size 14 clothing, when I'd always been a size 10). I knew I didn't look right. My face and tummy were bloated, and nothing looked good on me.

The ONLY thing which worked for me was totally overhauling my diet. I also took Orlistat to give me that push and kick start it. And it worked wonders. I do however suspect I'd have lost a fair bit of the weight even without Orlistat, as I gave up cheese, chocolate and most sweet things. No way totally though. I'd go mad. All in moderation. And I went down to 8 and a half stone. I do a lot of exercise too. I run and spin a few times a week.

I‘d say it’s beneficial- especially if done at pace and uphill if possible (to favour posterior chain). Better than nothing but you should try and make the effort with resistance training to strengthen the muscles and for bone density.

Walking won’t make you lose weight. It has a negligible effect on that. What will make you lose weight is a calorie deficit achieved through diet. People lose weight on Wegovy etc because they eat a lot less. Walking g is ok as a mild cardiovascular exercise so is far better than sitting around but you won’t lose weight-especially walking 4 or 5 miles a day.

Walking is great! Best way to increase your TDEE (total daily energy expediture) as it doesn't need much more than a comfortable pair of shoes and starts as soon as you leave the house. Also, you're unlikely to get injured and being active and outside is so good for all of your wellbeing. Just don't make the mistake of eating more because you're exercising! If I were you, I would try to add in a strength exercise class a couple of times a week. Use some of your walking time for something else beneficial. But if you don't have access to that, keep on with the walking! Anything is better than sitting.

Can I ask a question ??
..it's not my thread I know
,but I was going to post a thread asking
if it's worth wile getting a stepper because I can't get my steps in walking ?

Well it won’t do any harm but weight loss is about what you eat. Very little is to do with exercise

People who say that exercising doesn’t help with weight loss just don’t exercise enough or hard enough

Zone 2 exertion through walking optimises mitochondrial function and increases your metabolic flexibility to switch between fat and other forms of energy. That, and strength training, is really good.

You're in the minority.

I did intense spin classes multiple times a week, and walked everywhere, and never lost a pound. My body changed incredibly quickly though, I became very toned and looked very healthy, so something worked very well. Just not for weight loss. For me it was all diet.

Now my diet is better, the exercise I still do complements it very well. But on its own it didn't work for me. It seems different methods work for different people.