Will walking really help me lose weight?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've been loosing on 8-10k steps a day. But I do portion controls, drinking so much more water and limiting my alcohol intake. Also very very important, my activity tracker indirectly shows the intensity of my steps based on my calories burned. So if I did just lite walking after 10k steps I'll burn just 1200 calories. However, if I'm very active in my steps example moving around frequently, power walking, dancing, climbing stairs, jogging etc I burn 2000 calories by 10k steps.

Wha? Walking 10,000 steps burns 2000 calories? Count me in!

no way... dream on

[Anonymous]

Uh, running 10,000 steps doesn't even burn anywhere close to 2,000 calories. And the idea that 1 mile walked = 1 mile run in terms of calorie burn, has been repeatedly debunked.

For me:
10,000 steps = approx 5 miles
walking 10,000 steps = approx 250 calories (50/mile)
running 10,000 steps = approx 500 calories (100/mile, maybe slightly more)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Or at least allow me to stabilize my weight? Opinions and experiences appreciated!

This really has so many variables - your diet, age, current weight and fitness level, metabolic rate, overall health - that it's impossible for any one person's experience to translate.

But a few things I've learned in the last six months, during which I've lost 50 lbs: walking as much as possible can be beneficial no matter what your weight objective because being still as much as we are in our culture has been scientifically proven to be detrimental. Just start there with your thought process and try to do it regularly, not just once a day.

I used to run for 20 minutes a day just so I could get those 10K steps in a shorter period of time. My diet is very low calorie and carbs, so I found walking to be a better form of exercise because my diet coach said running on low calories was forcing my body to hold on to the energy it had in storage (fat) and just use the energy it had from recent meals.

I also started paying attention to heart rate and found that if I walk too fast (3.5+ mph on the treadmill) I wasn't burning fat. When I stay in the fat burning range (100 - 120 bpm according to my FitBit) and do that for at least 30 minutes/day, I do see lbs falling off a little faster.

WebMD has a pretty decent explanation with their BMI calculator ( http://www.webmd.com/diet/body-bmi-calculator ), but I think the healthy range that it prescribes is pretty f*cking ridiculous. I'm at the lowest weight I've been in 15 years, look great and feel greater but my BMI says I'm still obese. But a little more information about all the different variables that factor into losing weight is definitely helpful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've been loosing on 8-10k steps a day. But I do portion controls, drinking so much more water and limiting my alcohol intake. Also very very important, my activity tracker indirectly shows the intensity of my steps based on my calories burned. So if I did just lite walking after 10k steps I'll burn just 1200 calories. However, if I'm very active in my steps example moving around frequently, power walking, dancing, climbing stairs, jogging etc I burn 2000 calories by 10k steps.

Wha? Walking 10,000 steps burns 2000 calories? Count me in!

no way... dream on

It sounds like PP is talking about total calories burned for the day, rather than the amount of calories burned through exercise. S/he could certainly be burning 2000 calories a day just by being active, if s/he keeps the activity level up through the rest of their day, so not only taking those conscious steps.

[Anonymous]

Loosing weight is 80% what you eat 20% exercise.

[Anonymous]

Put. The. Fork. Down.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Loosing weight is 80% what you eat 20% exercise.

And what science is this ratio based on? Does that mean that someone just has to cut down their diet by 20% (so 80% of what they were eating) in order to lose weight? What the what kind of math is this based on?

It's simple - calories in vs. calories out. Can you eat a large pizza every night and lose weight? Absolutely, if you're burning more calories than that large pizza.

Sure, quality of calories can have an effect. But for the most part, it's calories in vs. out, no matter what you're eating or how little/much you're exercising.

[Anonymous]

Walking to the fridge? No.
Walking away from the fridge? Yes.