Does walking help to lose weight ?

M

MrGoat

New member
Hi all,

I am starting a walking regime at a slow-to-moderate pace for 2 hours everyday to lose fats and weight. Besides this, I also hired a personal trainer for physical training sessions once a week. Recently, there is something I am confused about :

Does walking actually help to lose weight and fats? From the research I have done on the internet, almost all articles say that walking helps to burn calories, and thus fat (though at a slower rate compared to running). When I asked my physical trainer however, he was adamant that walking does NOT help at all with fat and weight loss and he told me to stop walking because it was useless.

Any experts here on this issue want to help clarify ?

Thanks alot.
 
Be warned: I'm not an expert!
It's true that walking, while it burns some calories (so does sleeping!) doesn't burn a huge amount. But:
  • walking gets you out of the house and away from the fridge!
  • walking gets your body moving enjoyably, and the more you enjoy exercise, the more you're likely to stick with it.
  • walking gets you more familiar with and appreciative of how your body works, and the more you appreciate your body, the better your weight loss and fitness efforts are likely to go.
  • walking is free!
I'm so, so not an expert, but I am very pro-walking!
 
I am no expert on walking or weight loss, but I do know something about thermodynamics and the laws of physics. Walking requires energy and calories are energy, it will burn calories. If you burn more calories than you eat you will lose fat, you have to it's basic thermodynamics. If you lose fat you will eventually lose weight, you have to. Now other exercises may burn more calories than walking, and most weight loss comes from diet rather than exercise. So walking may not lose you a lot of weight, but if you walk rather than sit you will lose more weight, but maybe just a little.

Walking also has all the advantages Amy mentioned, so keep on walking!
 
alligatorob said:
I am no expert on walking or weight loss, but I do know something about thermodynamics and the laws of physics. Walking requires energy and calories are energy, it will burn calories. If you burn more calories than you eat you will lose fat, you have to it's basic thermodynamics. If you lose fat you will eventually lose weight, you have to. Now other exercises may burn more calories than walking, and most weight loss comes from diet rather than exercise. So walking may not lose you a lot of weight, but if you walk rather than sit you will lose more weight, but maybe just a little.

Walking also has all the advantages Amy mentioned, so keep on walking!
Click to expand...

That's what I thought … I'll keep walking then. 2 hours of walking burns about 500 calories for me, better than nothing
 
MrGoat said:
When I asked my physical trainer however, he was adamant that walking does NOT help at all with fat and weight loss and he told me to stop walking because it was useless.
Click to expand...
I am no expert either, but then neither is your PT by the sound of it. I think I would find a new one. I'm glad you have decided to keep walking :)
Here's just a few links to articles about the benefits of walking-
Walking for good health
Walk your way to fitness
Walking: Your steps to health - Harvard Health
 
MrGoat said:
When I asked my physical trainer however, he was adamant that walking does NOT help at all with fat and weight loss and he told me to stop walking because it was useless.
Click to expand...

Your trainer looks to be trying to take advantage of you so you will be reliant on their services. A good trainer should be able to teach you enough that you no longer need them.

As the others have said, walking is very beneficial.

Walking is low impact making it a good exercise choice for those who have a lot of weight to loose and those with joint problems. Walking will burn fewer calories per hour than running or jogging, however the higher impact puts you at higher risk of injury if you do not have a suitable level fitness or underlying injuries.

Walking is also of benefit to your mental health, which also helps you stick with the exercise. You won't loose weight through exercise if you do not enjoy the exercise your doing and stop doing it.
 
it took a while, but i found someone who agrees with your trainer... a short article by Shovon Chowdhury.
his contemporaries describe him as... "a slightly disturbed Delhi-based writer. "

Why walking is bad for you
shovon chowdhury | Updated on March 10, 2018 Published on December 25, 2015

You could choke on the air. You could fall into a pothole. Salman Khan might be driving nearby. Plus you’ll be late for meetings
Our ancestors were not bipeds. Circumstances forced us to stand erect. We were quite cosy up in the trees. Some would argue that it’s been downhill ever since. But there’s not enough food in trees. Man cannot survive on fruit alone, although women often try when they’re dieting. Unfortunately, we were very low on the food chain at this time, and the surface was full of predators. Running made us harder to catch. Since then, the history of mankind has been dominated by the relentless need to move faster. In the beginning, we looked for large animals we could climb on, such as horses and camels. Other animals began avoiding us. Subsequently we invented the wheel, the chariot, the horse carriage, the bicycle, the railway engine, the automobile, roller skates, skateboards and the space shuttle. As our lives have improved in different ways, so has our ability to move from point A to point B. The conclusion is inescapable. In the context of modern life, walking is an obsolete practice.
 
I used to be very skeptical of how much help walking was until last year. I started walking for a couple hours every day to play PokemonGo. Nothing else in my lifestyle changed and I wasn't trying to loose weight at the time and I lost 5lbs in just a few weeks.
 
Beside which many more people can walk 5 k than run them - and the calorie burn per km is similar. It just takes more time to do it walking.
 
From my own experience I can say that I was a highly obese lady (height 5ft3, weight 294 pounds) in 2007.
I was very sedentary. I did no exercise of any kind.
I started walking... Slowly walking... At first I walked round the block where I lived. I perched on a garden wall when I wanted a break on that block...
I walked again the next day.
When I could walk further - I did. I went twice round the block - building up to the nearest shops...
I pushed myself to increase the distance every day I thought I could. My stamina improved and I naturally speeded up to - but it was still walking...
Before long I was able to walk further - to my doctors, to the nearest main supermarket, to the park - all sorts of places...
In addition - I realised that I was starting to lose weight. My husband had bought some scales and I could see that the pounds were reducing...
I didnt count calories - but started cutting out chocolate and treats... I enjoyed seeing the reduction at the scales...
I started making a note of what my main meal was each day - and since I liked seeing the numbers come down - meals that seemed to see a big reduction were eaten more often.

I wasn't counting calories but I was selecting healthy food and walking every day.
If my weight loss ground to a halt - I increased the distance of my daily walk.

I lost about 90 to 100 pounds over the next 7 months by doing exactly this... Not counting calories and not doing any other forms of exercise than walking... Then I joined a keep fit class - but walking continued to be my main form of exercise.

Over the course of two years from 2007 to 2009 I lost 168 pounds - getting to a healthy weight and was measured and informed at that time that I had low body fat.

Never let anyone tell you that walking can not help you lose fat. It is a brilliant form of exercise.
 
:iagree: whole-heartedly. Never let anyone tell you that walking can not help you lose weight. It is an excellent form of exercise :)
 
Omega said:
From my own experience I can say that I was a highly obese lady (height 5ft3, weight 294 pounds) in 2007.
I was very sedentary. I did no exercise of any kind.
I started walking... Slowly walking... At first I walked round the block where I lived. I perched on a garden wall when I wanted a break on that block...
I walked again the next day.
When I could walk further - I did. I went twice round the block - building up to the nearest shops...
I pushed myself to increase the distance every day I thought I could. My stamina improved and I naturally speeded up to - but it was still walking...
Before long I was able to walk further - to my doctors, to the nearest main supermarket, to the park - all sorts of places...
In addition - I realised that I was starting to lose weight. My husband had bought some scales and I could see that the pounds were reducing...
I didnt count calories - but started cutting out chocolate and treats... I enjoyed seeing the reduction at the scales...
I started making a note of what my main meal was each day - and since I liked seeing the numbers come down - meals that seemed to see a big reduction were eaten more often.

I wasn't counting calories but I was selecting healthy food and walking every day.
If my weight loss ground to a halt - I increased the distance of my daily walk.

I lost about 90 to 100 pounds over the next 7 months by doing exactly this... Not counting calories and not doing any other forms of exercise than walking... Then I joined a keep fit class - but walking continued to be my main form of exercise.

Over the course of two years from 2007 to 2009 I lost 168 pounds - getting to a healthy weight and was measured and informed at that time that I had low body fat.

Never let anyone tell you that walking can not help you lose fat. It is a brilliant form of exercise.
Click to expand...

Congratulations on the weight loss. That's awesome.
 
Yes, I guess so... walking is fun, just make sure avoid any more time of resting... just maintain your pace average slow to fast (like walktathon).

Just don't forget to get enough rest, eat well balance nutrition foods, eat less carbs. good luck man!
 
Walking is an easy, natural as well as cost-free exercise. At least a 30 minutes walk a day burns more calories which helps to weight loss goals.
 
So what calories is your walk burning…? I will give you two examples.

i walk in the morning. before i take a step my status is that i have not ingested any calories for the past 12-14 hours. When i woke up i skipped breakfast maybe having a cup of coffee or tea. I have no stored glycogen restocked into my muscle and liver for those calories from dinner yesterday are long gone. I am on the cusp of needing to enter a ketogenic state where stored fat will be converted to usable sugar. Every step I take on my walk will be burning fat calories.

my friend is the other example. He has ended his evening with a few beers before turning in. After eight hours of sleep he gets up and eats breakfast… of course… it’s the most important meal of the day, right? depending on what sort of breakfast, a certain amount of calories will be digested and stored in muscle and liver tissues… easy to get at ~400 calories. the rest will be on its way to be stored as fat. his body will be generating insulin to take care of that. After breakfast he starts his walk. During the walk, a number of those easy calories will be used, but again, at the same time, much of the recently eaten breakfast is being stored as fat. Some might even be used before lunch. After that walk… probably a small weight gain,

take your pick.
 
overlandflyer said:
So what calories is your walk burning…? I will give you two examples.

i walk in the morning. before i take a step my status is that i have not ingested any calories for the past 12-14 hours. When i woke up i skipped breakfast maybe having a cup of coffee or tea. I have no stored glycogen restocked into my muscle and liver for those calories from dinner yesterday are long gone. I am on the cusp of needing to enter a ketogenic state where stored fat will be converted to usable sugar. Every step I take on my walk will be burning fat calories.

my friend is the other example. He has ended his evening with a few beers before turning in. After eight hours of sleep he gets up and eats breakfast… of course… it’s the most important meal of the day, right? depending on what sort of breakfast, a certain amount of calories will be digested and stored in muscle and liver tissues… easy to get at ~400 calories. the rest will be on its way to be stored as fat. his body will be generating insulin to take care of that. After breakfast he starts his walk. During the walk, a number of those easy calories will be used, but again, at the same time, much of the recently eaten breakfast is being stored as fat. Some might even be used before lunch. After that walk… probably a small weight gain,

take your pick.
Click to expand...

If you like doing fasted cardio I wouldn’t tell you to stop but it’s not essential. For me I eat all day. I take in calories as soon as I wake up and right before bed.

There are only so many opportunities for protein synthesis to occur in a day. I’m eating about 220 to 240 grams of protein a day in 30 to 40 gram increments. I actually have a pre breakfast breakfast. Something super quick and easily digestible while I make my “2nd” breakfast. If I skip this part of my day it becomes increasingly difficult to eat enough by the end of the day.

I’ve lost 170 pounds in under 18 months with this approach. But like I said if you enjoy fasted cardio I would say keep going.
 
You might be able to lose fat that way, depending on the time and intensity of your walking and what your diet's like. But eating low calories through dietary changes seems to help weight loss more successfully than does exercising.

Go for 30 minutes of brisk walking yourself, you may perhaps burn up about 150 more calories a day. To reduce a pound a week, you usually need to eliminate 500 calories a day.

Of course, the more you walk and the quicker your speed, the more calories you'll burn. To reap the most health advantages from exercise, your workout strength must usually be at a moderate or vigorous level. For losing weight, the more intense your exercise, or the longer exercising, the more calories you burn.

However, balance is very essential. Overdoing it can increase your risk of pain, injury, and burnout. If you're new to regular exercise and physical activity, you may need to start at a light strength and gradually build up to moderate or vigorous intensity.

Once you've lost excess weight, being active is even more essential — it's what helps keep the weight off. In fact, research has shown that people who maintain their weight loss over the long run get frequent exercising.

So keep walking, but ensure you also follow a healthy diet.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top