TheDiddleyMan

I am a bit confused. Lots of sources I have read say that walking at a brisk pace for up to 45 minutes or so, can help lose a lot of weight, even more so than jogging and running. My doctor, on the other hand, seems to think that walking won't do much for me. I realize it doesn't do much for strength, but he implied that it wouldn't do much for weight loss, as I understood him.


(BTW - I am not way overweight, but I am large enough )

So, what is the truth here? Will brisk walking work for me?


Thanks,

Kevin

simian

Your doctor does not seem to keep informed. Walking will help - I think last year info was released showing as little as 20 minutes per day will help, more is better.

Simian

JGL53

The 'larger' you are, and the older you are, the less likely that jogging/runnning will be a good sport to pursue, due to the impact stress to your joints.

Walking is a much better alternative. However, there is still impact stress with walking, especially power or speed walking. You may also want to consider instead easy bouncing on a one-person trampoline for several minutes per day, or use a stair-climber or an eliptical glider, available at most gyms, since there is essentially little if any impact on the joints.

I'm not an exercise physiologist - I'm a 225 lb., fifty-four year old guy who has been an avid exerciser all of my adult life. Believe me, avoiding high impact exercise is a must (for many if not most people), IF you want to maintain healthy joints.

And just a thought - exercise by itself, even high intensity exercise, takes quite a dedication of time to burn off excess body fat - it's your diet that is all important.

E.g., a pound of body fat is 3,500 calories. If you burn, say, a really high rate of ten calories per minute, it's gonna take you nearly six hours to burn off that one pound. If you're dedicated, it can be done, but it's difficult for most people to get in six hours of high intensity exercise per week.

doghouse

Short answer:
You burn about 100 calories per mile of walking or running. Of course you will burn these calories faster when running, because you cover this mile in a shorter period of time.

One pound of fat equals 3,500 calories. To lose one pound of body weight, you must use 3,500 more calories (or cut 3,500 calories of food). It doesn’t matter if you burn this walking, running, or with some other form of activity.

Caveat #1. The precise amount of calories you burn depends on your weight and level of training, among other things

Caveat #2. At certain speeds, running is actually more efficient than walking. If you start walking and gradually increase your pace, there will come a point where you “feel” like breaking into a run. At that point, running becomes more efficient. So, with really fast walking (“race walking”) you will actually burn more calories per distance than running.

Caveat #3. When you are burning more calories than you are consuming, some other physiologic changes kick in that affects these numbers as well, but for a rough guide this should be accurate.

Bookman

I have personally gotten some very good results with walking and a calorie controlled diet. A few years ago, I was able to lose about 55 pounds with no structured exercise other than walking, and that weight was lost at a very nice rate of 1 1/2 - 2 lbs per week.

There is certainly some impact associated with walking, but high-quality athletic shoes specifically for walking (or cross training) can make a difference. You may wish to replace your walking shoes after just a couple of months if you are walking daily.

I walk the same route each time (I'm currently walking 3 days a week and doing resistance training on alternate days), and it is 2.2 miles with a couple of moderate hills. I try to achieve an average rate of 4 mph by completing the circuit in 33 minutes or fewer.

Even with the daunting calorie figures put up by the last two posters, lets keep in mind the objective of long-term, steady weight loss. I found a couple of references to the calorie burn from walking 4mph; I can't vouch for them, but lets see how the numbers go.

The estimate that I saw was .037 calories/pound/minute from 4mph walk when you consider the activity and the increase in your basal metablolism. Again, I'm not hanging my hat on this statistic, but it does makes the numbers come out nicely, and seems to align fairly well with doghouse's estimate above (which is the effect of the exercise alone).

We'll calculate my weight at 245, and take my walk data from above:

.037*245*33=300 calories. Six days a week is a little over half a pound. I don't know about you, but a half pound a week contribution from exercise for just thirty minutes per day seems like a pretty good deal to me. Cut out another 300-600 calories from your diet daily and you're achieving a very respectable rate of loss without doing anything dramatic to your lifestyle.

Bookman