Walking is underrated and the gym is overrated

[Anonymous]

I disagree with a major part of this. I agree that walking is underrated (I love walking and log about 10 miles a week over the course of 2 days - hills and stairs), however the gym - more specifically the weight room is where you make your largest gains and the most progress when it comes to burning fat long term, and of course building strength. Period. Full stop. The end.

Sure if you want a short term calorie burn, go ahead and kill yourself on the elliptical or treadmill. It's fun to see you've "burned 400 calories", but that calorie burn stops the minute you step off that cardio machine.

This is actually a pretty elementary concept.

[Anonymous]

More muscle means move calories burned per day. This will allow more eating calories while not gaining fat/weight.

Simple concept. Example: those super strong weight lifters eat 3000-4000 calories a day or more and have visible abs. They can eat that much because they have a lot of muscle. This is just an example, not saying you should become incredible hulk.

[Anonymous]

Lifting weights and a good diet will transform your body more than loping along for miles.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lifting weights and a good diet will transform your body more than loping along for miles.

Agree. And walking won’t stop the old age muscle waste. Every wonder why so many older people get hunched over, wide in the middle, and spindle legs?

[Anonymous]

Great post and totally agree, OP! Another thing is walking calories get burned kind of mindlessly- you listen to your podcast or music, focus on your destination, and it doesnt seem like youre working out. That person hitting the weights at the gym often doesnt even break a sweat, but will consciously have ticked off the "worked out" box in their mind, and probably be much more likely to up the calories they eat accordingly.

[Anonymous]

There have been studies on exercise and weight loss and IIRC, people who start an exercise program eat more to compensate for the calories that they lose when working out, but only up to a certain threshold (about 1,000 calories a week), and people who spend more time exercising, so that they burn calories beyond that threshold, are more successful in losing weight.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/09/well/move/to-lose-weight-with-exercise-aim-for-300-minutes-a-week.html

I think strength training is important for everyone, and cardio is important for your heart, so you should do both. If you're also trying to lose weight, seems like increasing the overall time you spend exercising to at least 300 minutes per week is something to aim for.

[Anonymous]

Totally agree OP! I never looked better than when I went walking 5 miles daily. I really should go back to it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am in a few weight loss groups on Reddit - although I have lost 40 pounds I am still learning how to maintain it. I use an Apple Watch to track my steps. I know it's not 100% accurate but it's what I have and we can assume that if it overcounts one day, it will every day, so the comparison of the day to day is accurate enough. Days when I am sick or it's gross out and I can't get over 2,000 steps in, I will only burn 1500 calories. If I can get 8,000 steps (80 minutes of walking or about 4 miles) in, I'm looking at closer to 1800 calories. So an hour of walking will burn about 300 calories extra.

Back to Reddit and questions about weight loss....people often ask "why am I not losing weight? I go to the gym 4 times a week." It's because lifting weights or going on the elliptical or doing a yoga class do not burn that many calories! You are still living a sedentary life if you do not move all day and then work out. You may change your body disposition but it's not enough to lose weight.

TLDR: if you want to lose weight, WALK MORE and stop acting like going to the gym is enough.

I do agree that walking is underrated because people neglect the importance of calories burned through non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT)/he energy expended for everything we do that is not sleeping, eating or sports-like exercise. Living a lifestyle where you move outside of scheduled movement is incredibly important.

At the same time I disagree that strength training is overrated. As we age building and maintaining muscle is incredibly important for posture and bone density.

Now "why am I not losing weight? I go to the gym 4 times a week." the issue here is that people want to believe they need to do more/exercise more to lose weight when it reality that largely comes down to diet. You see it here too, everyone lists their activity/exercise classes, miles run but neglects what they are consuming. Diet for weight loss exercise for health.

I agree with all of this.

Yes. Achieving and maintaining a healthy weight is at least 80/20 diet (what you consume, not being "on" a diet)/exercise.

The gym is overrated in the sense that you do not need to go to the gym to get a good workout, including strength training. Yes, the gym will have more equipment, but you can get a good workout at home for a minimal financial investment and using minimal space in your home.