Is walking enough?

[BrokenHill]

Im 5ft 8. Weigh 13st 11. Want to reduce this to 10st 5. Over 3 stone to go. I work from home and am a lone parent. I drop son at nursery at 8, start work at 9, between 8 and 9 I'm having my breakfast and showering as I prefer to do this when my son isn't in the house. He's only 4 and it means I don't have to leave him unsupervised (he won't sit in the bathroom whilst I shower). I have so little time but have started walking on my lunchbreak. Very brisk 45 minute walks every day. Only been doing it for 3 days but loving it so far. I've been hitting my 10k steps by making sure I get up every 30 mins and also taking my son to the park at the end of the day and running around with him. If I combine with a healthy diet, is this enough to get fitter, build a little muscle tone and lose weight? Not trying to look like a super model, just tired of feeling so unhealthy.

Walking is good for you in general and it gets you out and about, but no amount of walking will be enough to lose 3 stone unless you reduce your food intake, no matter how healthy it is.

You've made a start - good luck!

People on here say you can't reduce weight by walking. From my experience I know you can but it's slow - which is why people often don't notice. I walk 10,000 steps a day or more and it definitely lowers my weight, without a doubt. I know this because if I stop, I pile on the weight. A good example is during lockdown. I still had a walk every day but was doing around 6000 steps per day instead of my usual 10,000+ (because of moaning children who'd usually be at school). In just a few months I put on 12lbs!! my diet was exactly the same. I wasn't eating more during lockdown, I wasn't drinking more. All that extra weight was simply from walking less. When I have a week of walking more than usual I definitely lose more weight. I've worked out that I naturally lose about a pound every 10 days from walking (which matches the amount of calories you burn through doing 10,000 steps). I don't actually want to lose more weight so I do have to eat more calories to stop myself losing too much.

If you are increasing your exercise while decreasing your calories then yes you will lose weight. It will be slow but it will happen and likely be more sustainable if its slow. You could add in something else to mix it up, like a 30 minute exercise video or something a couple of times a week instead of a walk at lunch. Also try drinking more water as that can help with weight loss too.

The key to weight loss is what you eat.

Exercise is terrific for you in so many ways, though, and walking can be enough for health benefits (but will be a tiny effect on the scales).

Aim to do vigorous walking though (eg fast up hills) so that you raise your heart rate. 3x 25 mins of vigorous activity a week will have a positive impact. But even if that's a stretch at the moment, you can work up towards it over time.

I agree with previous poster that if you can add a couple of home workouts a week, that'll be even better. Maybe beginners' Pilates?

Thanks everyone. I could probably add in a YouTube workout up to 2 times a week in the late afternoon when my son is at nursery late! Sleep is also a huge issue so I need to sort that too. I go to bed too late.

It's a great start and you will notice a difference.

I agree with watching what you eat, but start small and manageable something you can stick to long term and build on if you like. Same with exercise. I'd start with something easy a couple of times a week, or every other day, whatever you feel you can manage. Pilates would be a good start. A friend of mine started with five minute Pilates YouTube workouts and a couple of years later does a lot more. Search for Bailey Brown 5 minutes.

I have two friends who swear by walking to keep their weight under control and they both say it helps their MH too. One of them lost 2 stone when she started a job that meant she had to walk a lot so you definitely can lose weight walking, she was in her 50's at the time.

Stick with what you are doing for now, see how it goes and give it up to 3 months, you will probably find your sleep will improve. It's usually when people try to make too many changes at once that they fail to make it permanent. If you need to up the ante you can add work outs at a later date once you've got into the habit of walking.

Walking is great exercise and quite underestimated I think. I would add some hills if you can. Also agree what others have said; you cannot outrun or out walk a bad diet.

I've been hitting my 10k steps by making sure I get up every 30 mins and also taking my son to the park at the end of the day and running around with him. If I combine with a healthy diet, is this enough to get fitter, build a little muscle tone and lose weight?

Probably not enough. 10,000 steps a day is a minimum, not a target - maybe at 20,000 steps a day you'd notice the difference.

Walking is great for our bodies - it's what they're built for. But unless you are really walking fast, and challenging yourself with speed and distance, it's not going to do what you want to achieve.

90% of it is diet anyway, in terms of losing weight. Base your diet on vegetables, healthy fats, lean protein, pulses, yoghurt, fruit. Cut the white carbs - bread, rice, pasta.

If you want to develop muscle tone, some form of cross-training or strength training is necessary - or even Pilates or yoga.

Brisk walking is very good, and watching what you eat/drink is necessary too. But for me, the single best thing I do to lose weight, tone up, and build muscle, is strength training. I cannot recommend it highly enough. It is so good for women in particular, because we lose bone density as we age. Do a bit of research and you will be persuaded too. Strength training makes me feel amazing, helps me sleep, improves my metabolism... It's awesome!

What's the best way to strength train at home?

There are tons of free online videos available on YouTube - I recommend FitnessBlender. They're an American husband and wife team, not too loud or enthusiastic, just really great routines and advice. Look at their website too. You can start off using things like soup tins as weights to see if you like it.

I lost 9 stone in less then a year by walking.

But I was in a calorie deficit too.

100% agree, I cannot stress enough how much everyone should do strength training,

when people say “tone up” it actually means build muscle and lose fat. Walking won’t do that.

also on the diet front - prioritise protein. It’s so easy to start dieting and think you’ll eat low cal soup and veggies but you’ll just lose water and eventually muscle not fat, you need to be eating protein to keep the muscle you have and that you start to build

last point- I get up early to workout. If the baby has had a rubbish sleep then I do it with my toddler around. She loves helping now - she plays with the resistance bands of copies me. It’s great to get them in to exercise so little.

I get up early to work out too. It's my way of prioritising it and making sure it gets done. My kids are teens now, but I have been doing this since they were little.

80% diet 20% exercise is the rule of thumb when it come to weight loss.

But I thin the relationships between eating and training is more important . When I trained regularly at the gym (classes mainly) I found this made me much more focussed on eating s balanced heathy diet and getting the "macros right" so I could see more results. I was also around your weight and lost 2 stone.

So yes walking everyday will
Make you feel better and healthy eating will make you walk better and want to eat more healthy to fuel you body so you can do it more So it's a positive feedback loop (I made that up but it's sound plausible)

Lifting weights - free weight- does make you feel amazing!

I was also at the 6.30am spin class and at work for 8.30

Can you do your walk at I
8-9 and shower later?

I can't really because I work full time. I can't function if I don't have a shower and get myself ready. I have really severe anxiety that is a lot worse if I feel groggy.

If you do more exercise and eat more healthily then yes, you will lose weight. You will also feel fitter and sleep better as well.

Don't be deterred by the naysayers. Any increase in exercise is better than none, and it helps if you drink more water too.

@BrokenHill I am a morning showerer obsessive and completely understand!

Walk up hills. Walking on an incline actually burns far more calories than a gentle jog!

Lots of walking plus reducing food will lose you weight, but it’s mostly about the food. Check out the calories. I didn’t want to ‘calorie count’ but then I noticed that the lasagna I often had for dinner had 1046 calories in it. No wonder I’d been piling on weight!!

What about couch to 5k? It would have much more of an impact on weght loss than just walking, and running is proven to be hugely beneficial for mental health as well. You could drop your son at 8am, do your session, have a shower and still be at work for 9am. Or do it on your lunch break.
I really struggle for time through the week so tend to run early in the morning and get it done for the day. Then a longer run at weekends, and strength training or yoga on my rest days.

@BrokenHill - walking is a great form of exercise. Especially if you wear wrist and ankle weights.

But you need more to get really fit.

Start off with Lucy Wyndham Reed. Lots of short but effective workouts. Try her Thighs & Glutes workout. I've been doing this for 4+ years and it's so effective.

A strong core is the key to fitness training. Try Rebecca Louise's Best Abs and the Bowflex 3-minute plank.

Weight training if is extremely effective but needn't be scary. A pair of dumbbells and Rebecca Louise's Ageless Arms or Bingo Wings is a good start.

Once you've done all the above, you'll be ready for Caroline Girvan. At that point you'll realize why all this exercise malarkey is really, truly, madly worthwhile.

Trust me. It is sooooooooo worth it.

There is a free app called Fition, they do workouts between 10 -60 mins, all different types of stuff and you can watch them on your phone or iPad. Could you perhaps squeeze one of them in 3 times a week as well?