Is Walking Enough for Weight Loss?

By Marcus Morgan, M.Ed., CPT Fitness Professional & Workout Planner

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Walking as Aerobic Exercise

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Many people have the goal to lose weight quickly and permanently, but they also want to do it in the most simple way. The weightloss goal often includes 4 immediate "go-to" solutions:1) HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training , 2) bodyweight exercise , 3) weightlifting and , 4) aerobic exercise. But, which of the previous mentioned methods is the SIMPLEST? Aerobic Exercise.

You may wonder how aerobic exercise is the simplest method for weightloss — you may think of aerobic exercise as a lot of confusing and high paced movements. To enhance your understanding of aerobic exercise, aerobic exercise does not solely mean a lot of "class-style" cardio exercise, but also includes walking!

Walking is aerobic exercise. Aerobic describes that breathing is going to be important when you walk—breathe smoothly.

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What is it about walking?

Research provides the understanding that walking is a good method to lose weight because it is good for burning fat; not because it is exercise alone, but also because the body can burn fat better during certain heart rates. Walking helps you reach the heart rate that is ideal for fat loss; it also allows you to maintain that heart rate longer because of the low intensity of the exercise called walking .

Walking 30 minutes a day, 4 times a week, can make some healthy improvements to your body—with a low calorie diet, desired weightloss changes can occur.

Why does walking not seem like it is enough to lose weight?

Many people give up on walking to lose weight early because they have a hard time seeing results. Often, the amount of time they spend walking does not seem to match the limited results they receive, if they get to see results at all.

Sometimes the dietary habits a person has may not match the energy they are using while walking or recovering, so they maintain their weight or are slow about losing it.

Other times you may see your walking efforts "too easy" to lose the amount of weight that you want to lose. In other words, you may feel like the exercise intensity is not enough or realistic enough to lose weight.

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Remember, although there may not be signs of weightloss, walking, may lead you to improvements in heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing.

BELOW are some other reasons you may be seeing your walking as "too easy" to meet your weight loss goal:

(I define walking as ‘too easy’ , meaning not efficient, or good enough, to meet weightloss goals.)

You may see walking as "too easy" if :

1.) you are not seeing weightloss results AT ALL with the current distance or time you are walking.

2.) you are not getting the results you expect within a reasonable amount of time to lose weight.

BOTTOMLINE

Walking is a healthy physical activity and form of cardio, aerobic exercise. Walking, without a consideration for weightloss, is good by itself—it leads to better health. Walking consistently, with a good breathing pattern, can result in longer walking times. Longer walking times can lead to better chances of weightloss.